Kingstone Press Championship preview: Hunslet Hawks v Sheffield Eagles

Hunslet Hawks’ coach Barry Eaton was pleased with his side’s win over Doncaster last week in what could have been a tricky fixture.

“It was a tough game under the circumstances with Doncaster losing their coach,” he said. “Generally there is a response from any team in any team sport.

“We had to deal with that and having watched Doncaster’s previous two to three games and then the way they played on Sunday, I think it’s probably the best they’ve played over the last month or so – which made the win even more pleasing.

“This week there are similar circumstances to last week but we’re talking about a top of the table team in Sheffield and they’ll be smarting after their defeat. But we’re at home and gave a real good account of ourselves at their place and felt really, really frustrated that we hadn’t pushed them right to the wire. We reckon we can push them really close this week.”

Mark Aston, the Sheffield Eagles coach was desperately disappointed with the heavy defeat to London Broncos.

“We never came to the show,” he said. “We’ve dusted ourselves down, talked a few home truths and it’s a test of character what response you get – hopefully it will be positive.

“We’ve been pretty honest and tough, if training’s anything to go by they’re ready to put it right.

“It depends what team turns up. If it’s the one we all love then we’ll go out and do the job that we are capable of doing – if it isn’t, who knows?

“It’s about getting consistency and I don’t think we have. I’ve made a couple of changes to try and sort it out.”