Steel City seeing switch in power
Sheffield have long played second fiddle to their city rivals, Sheffield Tigers, but the balance of power in the Steel City could be shifting.
Last season, Sheffield finished 10th in National 2 North, just behind their rivals, marking the highest finish in the club's history. This year Sheffield sit third, exceeding their own expectations and director of rugby Simon Tomlinson is relishing their success.
“We're getting a nose bleed at the moment, it's somewhat better than what we anticipated,” Tomlinson told The Rugby Paper. “Our target at the start of the season was to finish in the top half, we're in third now which is unbelievably high for us, and we're enjoying life where we are at the moment.”
Tomlinson believes that the reason for Sheffield's success this season is their fearless brand of running rugby.
He said: “We've been reasonably lucky with injuries although our club captain Ianto Jones has had to retire with a neck injury in recent weeks. The weather has helped, the pitches have remained dry and we've played good running rugby. There's nobody we're afraid of, we could've won three of the games that we lost including against Leeds Tykes and we would've been near the top.”
Tomlinson heaped praise on head coach Anthony Posa who took over after the club's promotion to National 2 North in 2022, and has introduced an attacking style of play.
“Anthony coaches us, Sheffield University, Croatia 7s and Croatia 15s national teams and his philosophy is to attack, create space and score tries,” Tomlinson said.
“We have a good pack who create a superb platform, but most of our tries are scored through the backs. We excel at multi-phase play, keeping the ball alive, and not kicking away possession. Everyone is very excited about the style of rugby and the numbers watching home games is growing and growing.
“We have a lot of very young players in the team and a lot of players from Sheffield University. Students tend to start playing with us when they're at university, but then they stay in Sheffield, and they're loyal and want to play rugby being coached by Anthony.”
Remaining cautious yet ambitious, Tomlinson underlines their objective of a top-half finish. He said: “Anywhere in the top half is a success and third would be a superb result. We are delighted to do the double over our local rivals Sheffield Tigers last weekend, I can't remember the last time we beat them twice in a season, it was a sensational day and the boys were buzzing.”
Tomlinson proudly notes that the wider club is thriving and developing players for senior rugby.
He said: “We've got three men's teams, two women's teams, a full contingent of junior teams and we're producing a lot of homegrown talent. Our model is working, there are never less than five or six players who've come through the youth section in the first team, and in the seconds it's 10 or so.”
