Sheffield land Anthony Thackeray, despite interest elsewhere

Sheffield have fought off competition to sign half-back Anthony Thackeray from Featherstone on a two-year deal.

The 32-year-old arrives at Olympic Legacy Park with a lot of Championship experience, having previously played for the Rovers, Dewsbury Rams and Halifax.

Several Championship and League 1 clubs were believed to be interested in Thackeray, but he has decided to link up with the Steel City club.

On joining the Eagles, Thackeray said: “I am really happy as I’ve been speaking to Mark [Aston] for the past few weeks and we have managed to get it completed.

“There was a bit of interest [elsewhere] but just from the conversations I had with Mark, I knew I wanted to play for the Eagles.

“There are a lot of new signings so as long as we can get everyone on board and singing from the same sheet, we just want to be challenging and that’s the aim.

“We will get a good pre-season behind us and we’ll see what that brings. Personally, I want to be playing consistently week in, week out.”

Sheffield’s director of rugby, Mark Aston, commented: “He’s played at this level for many years and he does the things we want.

“He scores tries, has a great short kicking game and I have been impressed with him defensively over the last 12 months.

“I am delighted to get him on board and we have spoken for a while now, he went away and he’s come back and said he wants to be a part of this.

“We need to start progressing up the ladder and with players like Thackeray, he is going to help us to get where we want to be.”