Wheelchair RL Championship North: Dragons vs Eagles - Preview
19/08/2022
Sheffield Eagles Wheelchair Rugby League team are back in action this weekend as they make the 650 mile round trip to face Dundee Dragons in Championship North.
The game will be played at Dundee & Angus College on Saturday 20th August, 2pm Kick Off.
The Eagles, playing in their first competitive season, suffered a 4-88 defeat to the Dragons at home earlier this season in what was their fourth ever league game, but improved performances over the rest of the league and with individuals improving each week in training, the Eagles will be hoping for a more competitive showing.
Because of the distance, the Wheelchair side will be making a weekend of the trip, travelling up on Friday to prepare for the game and using Saturday night for some social time to bring the group even closer together.
The distances have ruled some players out, but Head Coach Greg Brown travels with the majority of his regular squad. Stephen Palin-Campbell misses out after sustaining a mountain biking injury, whilst Jack Johnson is unavailable due to holiday and Chris Haynes has other commitments, but Stacey Roulson returns to the squad after a bout of Covid to boost the squad and Brown has also named himself as cover for the travelling squad.
“In the second phase of the season we’ve proven ourselves to be much more solid opposition” noted Head Coach Greg Brown. “Our performance at Rochdale was a huge lift in performance and our attitude and desire against Bradford was remarkable and in both games we played very well as a team, whereas we often see a reliance on a star player from our opposition.”
“We know it will be a tough journey to go to Dundee and try and take the points from them, but the squad looked very focussed and determined at training this week. There’s been a lot of chat about the social time we’ll have when we’re up there, but I know that all of that will be off the agenda on game day until those 80 minutes are out of the way. We only have one game after Dundee and some of the players are not available for that and I know that those players will be throwing their all at Dundee to get us a result. It’ll be a fascinating contest.”
Sheffield Eagles: Vicky Brooks, Chris Brown, Greg Brown, David Butler, Lottie Davis-Browne, Shaun Orton, Emma Pearson, Stacey Roulson.
