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The Sheffield Eagles are a professional rugby league club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They play home games at the Olympic Legacy Park and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league.
Sheffield's only major honour was winning the 1998 Challenge Cup, they have won the RFL Championship twice.
The clubs traditional home colours are red, white and gold and they share a rivalry with Doncaster RLFC.
The club eventually joined the Second Division in 1984, coached by Alan Rhodes, they played at the Owlerton Stadium. A competition was run in the Sheffield Star newspaper to find a name for the new club and "Sheffield Eagles" was the winner. The first Eagles league game was on 2 September 1984 when they beat Rochdale Hornets, 29–10. The match took place the day after the club's sponsor went bust. Hetherington was both manager and player in the first season, building the team using experienced players from traditional areas. He also began signing up promising young players, one of whom was Mark Aston, later to be a critical part of the Eagles' survival as a club and current head coach.
By November the club was close to folding because of financial problems. Sheffield beat Wakefield Trinity to set up a John Player Special Trophy first round tie against Leeds Rhinos. This lucrative game generated enough cash to see out the season.
In the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, stadium safety became an issue in British sport and Owlerton was declared unfit to stage professional rugby league. Eagles were forced to play their home games at seven different venues including Hillsborough itself, Bramall Lane, Recreation Ground, Oakwell Stadium and Belle Vue. They survived one season in the top flight but were then relegated. This was a temporary decline as they immediately regained their place in the First Division, winning the Second Division title and Premiership. The Eagles slowly established themselves as a top flight club.
Don Valley Stadium became home for the club in September 1990, it had been built for the 1991 World Student Games held in Sheffield. In May 1991, Eagles signed their first local recruit, Jason Davidson. In 1992 they reached the Yorkshire Cup final, losing to Wakefield Trinity.
Bill Gardner became coach in July 1993 season replacing Gary Hetherington who stood down from his coaching role. In December following a run of five defeats, he was sacked and Hetherington took over as coach again.
Sheffield was included on the schedule for a game against the Kangaroos during their 1994 Kangaroo Tour and were defeated, 80–2, in the first game following the first test match at Wembley. This was the highest score by a Kangaroo touring team in England since they had defeated Bramley RLFC, 92–7, on the 1921–22 tour. The Kangaroos ran in 14 tries to nil at Don Valley Stadium. However, because of the tie the club benefited from a significant financial gain.
In March 1995, Sheffield pulled out of a proposed merger with Doncaster following a "breach of confidentiality"; Sheffield were then set to take-over 'The Dons' in a deal with administrators, which fell through after the RFL declared Doncaster players to be free agents.
When a Rupert Murdoch-funded Super League competition was first proposed, part of the deal was that some traditional clubs would merge. Sheffield were again down to merge with Doncaster to form a South Yorkshire club that would compete in Super League. This, along with other proposed mergers, were strongly opposed by supporters and never materialised. As Sheffield Eagles the club became a founder member of Super League in 1996 and took part in the first game of the Super League era against Paris Saint-Germain.
In November 1996, chief executive Gary Hetherington sold his controlling interest in Sheffield Eagles to take over Leeds Rhinos. Phil Larder became head coach, Paul Thompson, Chairman of Sheffield-based Sanderson Group Plc, became the majority shareholder, and Eagles plc became the first rugby league club to be floated on the Stock Exchange.
John Kear took over the coaching reins at Sheffield Eagles in 1997, taking them to the Premiership Semi-final in that year. The club's record attendance was set in August 1997 when 10,603 spectators saw them play Bradford Bulls.
On 2 May 1998, having beaten Leigh Centurions, Egremont Rangers, Castleford Tigers and Salford Red Devils, the Eagles faced Wigan Warriors at Wembley Stadium in the final of the Rugby League Challenge Cup. Wigan were overwhelming favourites with a side containing some of the best players of the modern era, including Andy Farrell, Jason Robinson and Henry Paul. Sheffield coach John Kear devised a game plan that was executed perfectly by the team on the day. Star of the show was scrum half Mark Aston, who won the Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match. The Eagles led from start to finish, running out 17–8 winners in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the competition.
In late 1999 the Rugby Football League wanted to lower the number of clubs in Super League. One of the measures they put in place was the option for two clubs to merge for the sum of £1,000,000. Fearing this was the only way to keep rugby league alive in Sheffield, the club accepted an offer from the RFL to merge with another struggling team, the Huddersfield Giants, making a new team Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants, who were scheduled to play games in both Sheffield and Huddersfield in Super League V. The Huddersfield-Sheffield side's away strip was in the Sheffield Eagles colours. The merged Huddersfield-Sheffield team did not last the season before reverting to the Huddersfield name. An immediately resurrected Sheffield Eagles would continue in the lower leagues.
From 1999 to the present the Eagles have played in the semi-professional leagues, first the Northern Ford Premiership and then the second division of the LHF Healthplan National League. Mark Aston assumed the role of player manager, continuing on the field until 2004, when he officially retired from playing. After the 2004 season Mark replaced his father Brian as chief executive, bringing in a new head coach in Gary Wilkinson at the end of the following year. As soon as the new club was reformed, it vowed to never overstretch its finances to achieve success. This made life difficult as the Eagles were denied the money received by other clubs in the NFP for TV rights as part of the deal that allowed them to re-enter the professional leagues.
2003 brought two club records; Sheffield suffered their record defeat on 2 February 2003 0–88 to Hull F.C. However, on 3 August 2003, London Skolars were the victims as Sheffield Eagles won 98–4, a record league victory to this day. In 2003 the team finished top of National League Two and reached the Grand Final, agonisingly losing 13–11 to the Keighley Cougars. Victory would have sent the Eagles into National League One, but this was not to be and a second play-off against the Batley Bulldogs ended in failure for the demoralised squad.
Mark Aston returned as coach in 2007. The 2007 season started slowly for the promoted team but ended with the Eagles defying the bookmakers, who had them as favourites for relegation, by finishing 6th in the league table and qualifying for the play-offs, where they lost a close game to Halifax.
On 16 October 2009, the Eagles announced they would be moving their home games from the start of the 2010 season to Bramall Lane, home of Sheffield United in a bid to increase attendances and atmosphere at games which now take place on Sunday afternoons. The Eagles moved to Bramall Lane on 11 April 2010, losing by 40–16 to Featherstone Rovers. The attendance of 2,871 was 3 times the average the Eagles achieved at Don Valley Stadium and the club hope to push on from there to achieve a Super League licence. The 2010 season saw the club finish in 6th place, making the play-offs and surprising both Leigh Centurions and Barrow Raiders with away victories before falling to eventual champions Halifax.
The 2012 season was the Eagles most successful to date, reaching the semi-finals of the Northern Rail Cup for the first time and beating Featherstone Rovers 20–16 in the Grand Final to become Championship Champions. The final was a re-match of the 2011 fixture which was the Eagles 1st ever appearance at the final but were beaten soundly on that occasion 40–4. The Eagles defeated Batley Bulldogs, Halifax and Leigh Centurions to reach the Grand Final with Scott Turner, Misi Taulapapa, Quentin Laulu-Togagae and Dane McDonald all scoring for the Eagles to bring the trophy back to Sheffield.
The Eagles played 3 home games at Bramall Lane in 2012 with the rest taking place at Don Valley including a crowd on 1,895 watching the opening league game against Swinton Lions at Don Valley, the Eagles' highest crowd there since the Super League era.
The Eagles moved back to Owlerton Stadium for the 2014 season as the Don Valley Stadium was scheduled for demolition. The Eagles planned to play at the new Sheffield Hallam University facility at Bawtry Road but unfortunately this was not possible and Owlerton Stadium stepped in at the last minute. Sheffield Eagles announced that they would leave Owlerton for the 2015 season due to new Rugby Football League ground regulations and played the season in nearby Doncaster at the Keepmoat Stadium, home of Doncaster.
In 2016 it was announced the Eagles would play at Sheffield Hallam University's Sports Park. The first league game played by the professional team there was against Halifax and they won 26–6.
In 2017, the club agreed a one-year ground share with Wakefield Trinity at Belle Vue. The club also returned to being a semi-professional outfit after an unsuccessful time as professional.
In 2019, however, things were looking up for the side as they brought in 14 new signings, including ex-Eagles Jason Crookes, James Davey and Pat Walker, but lost key players in Joshua Toole (Forbes), Matty Fozard (London). They got off to a flying start as they overcame the challenges of Swinton Lions, Barrow Raiders and Bradford Bulls in the first month of the new season. That year saw the Eagles return to Wembley Stadium for the first time in more than 2 decades to claim the inaugural 1895 Cup by defeating Widnes Vikings 38–16. However, their League season was less of a success as they finished in 7th place.
During the off-season, plans to build the Olympic Legacy Park were put into jeopardy as a court case to claim 100% ownership of Sheffield United F.C. found in favour of HRH Prince Abdullah bin Musa'ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud over Kevin McCabe -one of the main investors to the OLP project for Sheffield. Because of this, there were fears that Mr McCabe would remove plans for his Scarborough Group LTD to head up construction of a new ground on the site at the OLP. However, these fears were quashed when it was revealed construction would go ahead as planned in early 2020.
Sheffield finished the 2021 Championship season in 12th place on the table. In the final game of the year, Sheffield were beaten 78–10 by Featherstone. The following season the club finished 7th on the table and missed out on the playoffs. In the 2023 RFL Championship, Sheffield finished fourth on the table and qualified for the finals, however they were eliminated in the first week of the finals by London Broncos losing 42–0. In 2024, Sheffield finished 7th on the table but missed out on the playoffs due to an inferior for and against.
After being left homeless the club moved to the city's greyhound track, Owlerton Stadium in Hillsborough where they had previously played games between 1984 and 1989. The club experienced a dip in form at Owlerton, with there being temporary changing rooms and poor facilities.
The club moved out of Sheffield for the first time in 2015 when they made the temporary switch to the Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster. Here they ground shared with Doncaster Rovers and local rivals Doncaster, who were playing in the same division which meant the two clubs playing an extra home game when they faced each other. At the end of the RFL Championship, during The Qualifiers, the Eagles' were allowed to return to Bramall Lane for games against Hull K.R. and Wakefield Trinity. They also hosted Hull F.C. at the Lane, in a Challenge Cup fifth round tie.
The Eagles moved to Sheffield Hallam University's Sports Park on Bawtry Road, Brinsworth, Rotherham in 2016, where the reserves played their home fixtures. Temporary seating was erected to bring the capacity to 3,000 to meet Rugby Football League (RFL) regulations.
After finding themselves homeless again with work on the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Stadium delayed and unable to find a home in Sheffield, the Eagles played their home matches at Belle Vue, the home of Wakefield Trinity, for the duration of the 2017 season.
The club finally permanently returned to Sheffield and the Olympic Legacy Park in 2018. Work is due to start on the construction of a £5million stadium in the spring of 2019.
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| 2025 | Samurai |
| Billy Walkley | Keighley Cougars | 2.5 years | 1 July 2025 |
| Harry Bowes | 2 years | 10 October 2025 | |
| Joe Brown | York Knights | 2 years | 11 October 2025 |
| Connor Fitzsimmons | 14 October 2025 | ||
| Josh Hodson | Castleford Tigers | 2 years | 14 October 2025 |
| George Griffin | 15 October 2025 | ||
| Marcus Green | Midlands Hurricanes | 2 years | 17 October 2025 |
| Kieran Gill | Bradford Bulls | 2 years | 20 October 2025 |
| Jordan Lilley | 22 October 2025 | ||
| Lennie Ellis | Hull KR | 1 year | 26 October 2025 |
| Kai Morgan | Salford Red Devils | 1 year | 11 November 2025 |
| Danny Craven | Midlands Hurricanes | 2 years | 24 September 2025 |
| Oliver Roberts | 1 October 2025 | ||
| Tyler Dickinson | 1 year | 15 October 2025 | |
| Eddie Battye | Hunslet | 1 year | 9 October 2025 |
| Matty Dawson-Jones | 17 November 2025 | ||
| Cory Aston | Doncaster | 2 years | 29 October 2025 |
| Titus Gwaze | 1 year | 29 January 2026 | |
| Jack Mallison | 1 November 2025 | ||
| Evan Hodgson | Batley Bulldogs | 1 year | 9 November 2025 |
| Will Oakes | Batley Bulldogs | 1 week | January 2026 |
| Kris Welham | 12 September 2025 |
| Craig Lingard | |
| Craig Huby | |
| Paul Broadbent | |
| Mick Piper | |
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| Therapist | Sam Powell |
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| Challenge Cup 1998 |
| National League 2 Playoffs 2006 |
| 1895 Cup 2019 |
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| The Qualifiers | 4 | 7th |
| Championship Shield | 24 | 3rd |
| Championship Shield | 26 | 3rd |
| Championship Shield | 16 | 6th |
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