Match Report | Sheffield Eagles 10-36 York Knights
06/07/2025
Sheffield Eagles fell to a 10-36 defeat at home to second-place York Knights this afternoon in Round 16 of the Betfred Championship.
After suffering defeat last time out at Batley Bulldogs, Head Coach Craig Lingard was hoping his side could find a valuable win to start off July as we returned to the Steel City Stadium.
For the visit of York, Lingard handed a debut to winger Billy Walkley, who recently joined the club this week from Keighley Cougars. Fellow winger Ryan Millar also returned to the side, as both Matty Dawson-Jones and Jayden Billy dropped out.
There was also a return for forward Oliver Roberts, who featured off the interchange bench after he served a one-match ban last weekend.
Looking to extend their winning run to ten league games, it was the Knights who opened the scoring after only nine minutes as Connor Bailey spotted a gap from close-range to dance through and race under the sticks to score the game’s opening try.
York had opportunities to extend their lead further and Jordan Thompson went close from close-range after twenty minutes, but he came up with a knock-on in the attempt of trying to ground the ball.
Blake Broadbent had an attempt himself for the Eagles as he looked to get us back into the game. From close-range, he went for the line but was held up to the left of the sticks as he attempted to ground the ball.
The Eagles did manage to get themselves back into the game minutes short of the half-hour mark as Reiss Butterworth’s smart thinking from dummy half saw him ground the ball to the right of the sticks, following good build-up play by Jenson Windley.
The North Yorkshire side managed to get back on top as they ended the half strong as a quick-fire brace from Ata Hingano saw them edge 6-18 ahead heading into half time.
York extended their lead even further in the opening twenty minutes of the second half as former Eagles man Ben Jones-Bishop crossed in the corner with two tries within a seven minute period.
Centre Joe Law thought he’d grounded the ball to the left of the sticks shortly after to put them further ahead, but the ball was deemed to be lost as he attempted to ground the ball.
Liam Harris added a penalty from ten metres out to keep the scoreboard going with eight minutes to go, but debutant Walkley crossed for a try out wide in the corner with moments to go to get the Eagles back into the game.
As the hooter sounded, Toa Mata’afa crossed out wide for York’s seventh try of the game to wrap up a tenth league win a row, whilst the Eagles fall to a third defeat in a row.
Sheffield are back in action next Sunday when we travel to Boundary Park to face Oldham RLFC in Round 17 of the Betfred Championship (3pm KO).
Sheffield Eagles: Walker, Millar, Welham, Hodson, Walkley, Windley, Johnson, Battye, Butterworth, Broadbent, Farrell, Foster, Gwaze
Interchanges (all used): Roberts, Peachey, Billington, Reilly
18th Man: Bower
Tries: Butterworth (28’), Walkley (76’)
Goals: Hodson (1/1) Bower (0/1)
York Knights: Mata’afa, Jones-Bishop, Buchanan, Law, Galeano, Hingano, Harris, Fitzsimmons, Cook, Martin, Bailey, Field, Thompson
Interchanges (all used): McShane, Reynolds, Hudson, Clark
18th Man: Brown
Tries: Bailey (9’), Hingano (34’ 37’), Jones-Bishop (53’, 60’), Mata’afa (80’)
Goals: Harris (6/7)
Referee: R. Cox
Attendance: 746
