INTERVIEW | James Glover
15/08/2024
James Glover is hoping that the Eagles will be able to return to winning ways in the Betfred Championship on Friday night as we set to take on Batley Bulldogs.
The centre scored our only try in last week’s 42-6 defeat at Wakefield Trinity, as he crossed for his 14th try of the season, but he hopes that heading into Friday's game with Batley that we can get back to winning ways after defeat last time out.
We caught up with Glover earlier this week to get his reflection on last Friday’s defeat in West Yorkshire, and his thoughts ahead of this important clash at Olympic Legacy Park.
“It was a difficult game last week at Wakefield, we felt that we were in the game in the first half, we probably didn’t have the field position that we would have wanted, but in that first half I felt we was solid defensively.
“They obviously scored a few tries from kicks through our defensive line, so it wasn’t maybe systems that were breaking us. We need to be better at certain things, but them things are what will be worked on in training.
“It was a tough game in general last week, but we’ve reviewed it this week in training and hopefully we’ll be able to bounce back to winning ways against Batley.”
Friday's meeting with Batley will be the third of the season so far for the Eagles, but Glover knows that this one will be much different from the two games played against them from earlier this season.
“I’m really looking forward to being back at home this Friday, the boys enjoy playing in Sheffield on a Friday, so hopefully it’s going to be a good game, and we can get the win.
“Batley are a really good side, they always have been there or abouts in the Championship, so we know we’re going to have to perform against them in order to get the win.
“They’re constantly pushing for the playoffs every year, so we know what they’ll be about. They also have a good group of players who have been together for a while, so they’ll know a lot about each other.
It’s going to be tough; we have already played them a couple of times this year, but them games were very different to each other with different scorelines.
“I don’t think you can really read anything into that though this weekend, it’s all about which teams turns up on the day and do the same things right to help get the win.”
With only six league games remaining after this weekend's game for Sheffield, Glover admits that it’s going to be a tough run-in between now and the end of the season, but he knows that the club can’t afford to let their standards slip in the final six weeks of the season.
“We have obviously got a tough run-in between now and the end of the season out of the teams in and around us in the top six in the league.
“There are plenty of teams fighting to get into them positions, but we need to keep doing what we have been doing so far this year.
“We haven’t got here by merit, we’ve got here by doing the small things right, and that seems to be working for us.
“We need to ensure that we keep working hard as we have all year and ensure that our standards don’t slip in the final few weeks of the season.”
