Sheffield Tigers captain Josh Pickering confident of reaching Premiership play-off final

Sheffield host the first leg at Owlerton Stadium tonight with the second leg set for Leicester on Monday.

Simon Stead’s Tigers head into the play-offs on the back of an impressive win at Ipswich – the team that awaits in the final – in the last regular season match-up of the campaign.

But they have struggled against Leicester this year, who lead the series 4-2.

Captain Pickering said: “Well we’ve met them six times already this season and I feel that every time we’ve versed 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 semi-final.”

On the circuits getting moister after all the rainfall at the end of a dry summer, Pickering added: “The weather has started to change, the tracks have started to get a little bit trickier but I feel that could benefit us at Sheffield in that regard.

“When the weather was quite similar at the start of the year, we were dominant so hopefully we can turn that in our favour again now at the back end of the season.

“Either way, Leicester is going to be a good old test – but we’re ready for it!”