SHEFFIELD EAGLES coach Craig Lingard hopes lessons from the Challenge Cup defeat by Wigan can help fuel a run to the club’s third 1895 Cup final – and his second.
The Eagles became the inaugural winners of the competition for sides outside Super League when they beat Widnes 36-18 at Wembley in 2019.
And they returned to the national stadium for last year’s final, when they went down 50-6 to Wakefield.
Lingard, meanwhile, was in charge of Batley when they made the 2023 showpiece, losing 12-10 to Halifax.
Sheffield host neighbours Doncaster on Sunday week, March 2, in one of eight first-round ties in this year’s 1895 Cup (they have their second league match of the season at Widnes this Sunday).
It will be the former Castleford coach’s fifth competitive match at the helm since his December appointment.
And he reckons that while holders and visitors Wigan won 48-12 in round three of the Challenge Cup, there were positives aplenty from the performance of a side missing players through injury.
Those out included hookers Corey Johnson and Reiss Butterworth, halfback Morgan Smith and fullback Matty Marsh.
Lingard said: “Given we had a number of players out of their normal position, and had to reshuffle when we lost Oliver Roberts in the first half, I was really pleased, because we competed all the way through.
“You usually find out more about people when things are going against you, and that Wigan tie told me a lot.
“We’re out of the Challenge Cup, but still have the 1895 Cup, and for clubs like ourselves and Doncaster, that provides a much more realistic chance of progress.”
Lingard signed former Leeds Academy and Hunslet halfback Jack Mallinson on a two-year deal ahead of the Wigan game, but elected against picking the 23-year-old, who has also had spells at Workington, French team Tonneins and in Australia with ‘country’ side Albury Thunder.
Versatile forward Jesse Sene-Lefao has left the club by mutual consent.