Johnson hungry for more first team action

26/03/2021

After making his Sheffield Eagles debut in last week’s Betfred Challenge Cup fixture against York City Knights, new signing Ryan Johnson is hungry for more action in the Red and Gold.

Despite the Eagles finishing the game on the wrong side of a 6-36 scoreline, the centre impressed in his first Sheffield appearance and noted the help of a strong pre-season.

“Pre-season has been pretty tough to be fair,” Johnson said. 

“It is probably one of the hardest pre-seasons I’ve ever done but I’ve just taken it in my stride and I've tried to enjoy it as it’s my first-ever professional on.”

The 21-year-old, who came up against a talented York left edge, said his Sheffield debut will live long in his memory.

“It was a tough task having to go up against Ryan Atkins and Kieran Dixon but for me, it was just about enjoying the game,” he added. 

“I’ll never make my debut again it’s something I’m always going to treasure.

“It was a quite hard task to come up against an ex-Super League centre and winger but I thought I handled it but I know there’s always room for improvement in the future.”

Experienced campaigner Rob Worrincy partnered Johnson on the Sheffield right side and the youngster was thankful for Worrincy’s experience.

“It made my job easier playing with him because he talked to me, the stuff that I didn’t know he relayed to me and I think that was a part of me getting things right,” Johnson commented.

“Every time I made a mistake the lads talked me through it and that is what will develop me as a player”

After debuting, Johnson expressed how important more game time will be for him to achieve his goals this season.

He said: “My goals for this year are to play as many games as I can and whether I score loads of tries or do anything amazing, I just want to do the best that I can,” 

“Hopefully I can follow it up and be in the starting squad every week next year.”

The Eagles take on Bradford on Sunday 4 March at 12:45pm and the centre is expecting another difficult challenge.

Johnson added: “It’s going to be another tough one,”

“I think Bradford are a pretty solid squad and with (John) Kear as their coach, they’ll be a well-drilled side.”

By Lewis Coleman, photo by Alex Coleman