Henderson confident of Eagles soaring
Andrew Henderson believes Sheffield could be on the brink of a return to power as they prepare for a Co-operative Championship Final Eliminator against Leigh at Leigh Sports Village this evening.
Henderson and his team-mates go into the game following impressive back-to-back victories against Widnes Vikings and defending champions Halifax and stand just 80 minutes away from what would be the Eagles’ first appearance since the 1998 Challenge Cup win at Wembley.
“We’re all feeling pretty good,” said the Australian hooker. “The morale in camp is brilliant. We’ve had a good season and we’ve come into a good run of form at the right time.
“We achieved our team goal of finishing in the Top Four and we’ve had two great wins in the last few weeks to give us a huge confidence boost.
“Thursday will be another massive game for us now with plenty of pressure riding on it, but we’re going into the game as underdogs and that suits us fine.
“We know we’ll need to put in another big performance in order to progress but if we turn up right, then we have a great opportunity to win and go one step closer to winning some silverware, so this will be the biggest game of the season for us by far.”
Sheffield’s march towards the 2010 Grand Final came unstuck against Halifax in the corresponding fixture last season following two away wins against Leigh and Barrow but, having secured home advantage in the preceding fixtures this time around, Henderson is confident the Eagles can make it to their first Championship Grand Final.
“We only scraped into the play-offs last year and the game against Halifax was maybe one step too far,” he said. “This season we put ourselves in a much better position and we’ve another big game to come now.
“The win against Halifax on Sunday was great. We spoke about owing them one from last season when they knocked us out at the final stage and that was a big motivating factor for us. We were very solid in defence and we scored some great tries as well.
“We’ll need to repeat that performance because Leigh will be tough. They’ve been consistent all season and they smashed us earlier on this year, but this is a one-off game and anything can happen.
“It’s their last home game and they will want to go out on a high, but we’ll focus on our game instead of them. It will be tough to back up from Sunday but the pressure is all on Leigh. No-one is expecting us to win, but we’re a quality side on our day and we’re capable of beating anyone.”