SHEFFIELD star Josh Pickering insists his side is in a “good position” to beat Leicester.
The Tigers and Lions commence their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final when they meet in the first leg at Owlerton tonight (Thursday).
Leicester have had the better of the clashes between the sides this season as they bid to face Ipswich in the Grand Final.
The Lions won on their first two visits to South Yorkshire earlier this season, but their only defeat in their last ten matches in all competitions came at the hands of the Tigers when they went down 50-40 last month.
Sheffield reached the Grand Final in both 2022 and 2023, winning the title in the latter season, whilst Leicester were beaten Finalists last year.
Tigers captain Josh Pickering said: “We’ve met them six times already this season and I feel that every time we’ve faced them we’ve just got better and better.
“They beat us quite heavily away the first couple of times and then they came to our place and edged it twice as well.
“But in the Round 2 league meetings, we were much better down there and only lost by six, and then finally beat them at home by 10 and got the aggregate point, so that does leave us feeling in a good position going into this.”
Lions manager Stewart Dickson said: “The message to the riders doesn’t change just because this is the first leg of a play-off semi-final.
“The most important thing when you go away in the first leg of any competition is to stay in the tie, and it’s something we’ve done successfully over the last couple of years on most occasions.
“If we can do better than that then great, but it’s crucial that we leave ourselves in a position where we can win on aggregate at Leicester on Monday.”
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Leon Flint, Chris Holder, Nick Morris, Josh Pickering, Anders Rowe, Jye Etheridge.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
Words by Holeshot Media.
Images by Taylor Lanning.