BJB praises Workington win and previews Crusaders clash

11/03/2022

Sheffield winger Ben Jones-Bishop praised the Eagles after an impressive performance against Workington but he has given a warning ahead of Saturday’s potential banana skin Challenge Cup tie against North Wales Crusaders.

Speaking of the 4-54 victory over Workington Town, Jones-Bishop - sponsored by Extra Time Sports Bar + Alison and Carmen Levine, said: “It goes without saying that it was our best performance of the year,”

“It’s what we have been working on in pre-season and with it being a decent pitch and a firm track, it allowed us to play our game.

“It’s been a bit frustrating at times with the close games that we should’ve come out on top of, it’s fine margins, we did get caught cold a little bit at Barrow and definitely in the Dewsbury game.

“We executed the game plan really well (against Workington), hopefully there’s more of that to come as the season goes once we get a better understanding of what we want from each other and we get more familiarity with each other.”

The Eagles had their defensive resolve tested in the first half and the former Leeds Rhinos man was pleased with his side’s response on that front.

“The main thing was how we started the game,” he added. 

“It’s a long trip and you can sometimes fall into the trap of being a bit lethargic when you get off the bus but I think we handled it well.

“We had to do a fair bit of defending on our line in that first half but we held strong.

“It’s very promising to get such a good performance, I hope we can build on it.”

Jones-Bishop looked ahead to Sheffield’s trip to Colwyn Bay as the Eagles look to progress to the last 16. 

“It’s another decent trek for us and with how Parkside performed in the last round, we just want to build on last week,” he said.

“We set a marker for the season of what we can do. 

“I think it’s a decent pitch out there so hopefully we can play some good rugby.”

By Lewis Coleman, photo by Alex Coleman