Highbridge-based Somerset Rebels are aiming to clinch a second Premier League Championship title this week when they face the Sheffield Tigers in the Championship Grand Final.
Sheffield will stage the first leg at their Owlerton Stadium on Wednesday 26th October, with the second leg at Highbridge’s Oaktree Arena the following night, Thursday 27th October, both starting at 7.30pm.
This will be the fourth time since the current Play-Off system was introduced five years ago that the Rebels have reached the Grand Final.
They won the title back in 2013, while their other two appearances in the Final saw them finish runner’s-up on both occasions by just a single race point.
The Rebels have visited Sheffield twice this season, once in the regular league season when they went down 50-40 to the Tigers, but Somerset gained ample revenge for that defeat when winning in the Steel City 51-39 in the semi-final of the League Cup, a competition Somerset went on to win earlier this month.
By contrast, Sheffield’s two previous visits to the Oaktree Arena have seen them return north having suffered a 53-38 defeat in the league encounter and an 18-point loss (54-36) in the aforementioned League Cup semi-final.
The regular league season saw Somerset top the table, some 20 points above Sheffield who finished in 6th place to claim the final Championship Play-Off place, but despite this, and the Rebels holding the upper-hand over the Tigers in their 4 match-up’s this year.
Somerset team manager Garry May is taking nothing for granted. He told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We start the Grand Final with a clean slate for both teams, and what has gone before this year counts for nothing as far as the 2 legs of the Final are concerned.”
“I know that some people are making us favourites, but Sheffield have got to the final by beating the third and second placed teams [Newcastle and Glasgow] and so cannot be taken lightly.”
“We will go into the matches with the same professional attitude which has seen us through the season, and will go to Sheffield for Wednesday’s first leg looking for the win ahead of Thursday’s second leg back at the Oaktree Arena.”
“Hopefully there will be a good number of Somerset fans who will be able to make the trip up to Sheffield on Wednesday to support the team, and that the Oaktree Arena will be packed as the boys look to end the season in the best possible way….by winning the League Championship!”
