SHEFFIELD SLITHER PAST HALIFAX

29/07/2023

Sheffield Eagles returned to winning ways on Friday with an exhilarating win over play-off rivals Halifax Panthers. 

Following impressive performances for Midlands Hurricanes last weekend, Ross Oakes and Matty Chrimes earned recalls to the match day squad.  

The visitors started the scoring following a penalty, which brought them downfield James Woodburn-Hall spotted a gap and slid through the Eagles defence to score. Jouffret converted. 

Woodburn-Hall was involved in the next Halifax try; his clever drop-off ball allowed Jacob Fairbank to waltz to the line for the second Panthers score. Jouffret converted.  

The Eagles had a spell of pressure thanks to back-to-back goal-line drop-outs. Ultimately, Jones-Bishop was barrelled into touch by the Halifax sliding defence.  

It didn’t take long for the Panthers to add to their tally. This time Frenchman, Jouffret dummied past the Sheffield defence, spotted the gap and touched down for the visitor’s final try of the half. 

Scrum plays and Sheffield Eagles have become an iconic duo; Matty Dawson-Jones was on the end of a QLT pass and stepped inside of the Panthers defence to register the hosts’ first try of the game. Aston converted his first of the evening.  

Within a matter of minutes, Sheffield were back in the right end of the field and winger Dawson-Jones was back in the tries.  

After a case of over-playing from the Halifax side, Sheffield worked the ball left for the former Bradford winger, who bravely powered over in the corner to bring the Eagles back in the contest. Aston converted, which meant the hosts only trailed by six points at the break. 

HALF-TIME - SHEFFIELD EAGLES 12-18 HALIFAX PANTHERS 

Like the first half, Fax had the better start to the second half. 

The Panthers were given the first penalty of the second forty, closely followed by a  

goal-line drop-out, an Eagles kick out on-the-full and then a Panthers try.  

Pouncing on the error from Aston, Jacob Fairbank registered his second try of the game, with a score that caused debate on the pitch and in the OLP stands. 

Jouffret converted yet again to put the Panthers 12 in front.  

Sheffield responded in style; Jack Hansen charged-down a Jouffret kick before collecting the ball and racing away to score. 

Aston missed the kick, keeping Eagles eight behind.  

10 minutes after Hansen’s effort, Cory Aston notched a score against his former club to bring the Eagles back into the contest.  

The stand-off’s conversion attempt veered wide, which kept the Eagles four points behind going into the final 20 minutes. 

Into the final 15 minutes, and there was another moment of brilliance by Cory Aston, as the momentum switched in the favour of the good guys. 

Halifax’s Ben Crookes broke through the Sheffield defence, shook off the attention of QLT and looked set to score before a superman-like Aston came out of nowhere to tackle the Panthers man whilst also coming up with the ball to kill the potential Fax attack. 

The Eagles continued to build pressure into the last 10 minutes of the contest. First, with a goal-line drop-out after a clever Thackeray grubber kick. Then, former Eagle Zack McComb came up with an error on his own 20m line, which resulted in a scrum for the hosts. 

Liam Kirk and Will Calcott exchanged handbags at this point and were both sent to sit in the sin-bin for the conclusion of this pulsating Championship contest. 

The Eagles made better use of the additional space on the field; Jack Hansen found forward Brandon Douglas with a short pass; Douglas, set to join the Panthers next term, barrelled over to bring Sheffield level. Cory Aston added the extras with a simple-looking kick from in front.  

From the restart Fax’s attempted short kick-off was collected and returned with a showing of class by Ben Jones-Bishop. 

The Jamaican international batted off the Fax defenders like they were made of paper, before he raced away to seal the Sheffield victory.  

Aston converted to give the Eagles an eight-point lead with around a minute left on the timekeeper’s watch.  

Halifax registered the last score of the night through Ryan Lannon, which didn't affect the result, with the full-time hooter sounding in the try aftermath to the relief of an electric +1,300 strong crowd at the Olympic Legacy Park. 

FULL-TIME - SHEFFIELD EAGLES 32-30 HALIFAX PANTHERS  

Sheffield’s next Championship match takes place at the LEL Arena vs Whitehaven next Sunday, 3pm Kick Off.