Sheffield aim for third straight Grand Final

Sheffield are aiming to reach their third consecutive Championship Grand Final when they face Halifax on Thursday.

The Eagles had to do it the tough way, beating Dewsbury at the weekend, having lost to Halifax in the first round of the play-offs.

Hooker Andrew Henderson said: “We are still in it and we are desperate to give a better account of ourselves than the last game against Halifax.

“The break after the defeat to Halifax gave us the chance to sit down as a team and figure out where we went wrong and focus on finding the clinical form we showed earlier in the season.

“We have had some tough losses towards the end of the season, but I feel that we showed our true colours against Dewsbury and got ourselves back on track.

“That game gave us renewed confidence; we put in a very dominating display, but we know it will be a different game against Halifax.

“They will be fresh and most likely look to hit the ground running but we’re going to be ready for them.”

Despite finishing above Halifax in the league, the Eagles are going into the game as underdogs having suffered a blip to their end of season league form but the 34-year-old believes that puts all the pressure on their opponents.

“This season we set ourselves the target of making it back-to-back successes and to go out there and try to win another Grand Final, and we still want to do that,” he said.

“We are on the back of one of our best seasons ever. It’s just a shame that we haven’t been able to get some silverware in the cabinet yet.

“We’ve been in these situations before and if anything the pressure is on them to live up to the expectation.”