Doncaster RLFC: Horne ready to upset players with Super 8 selection

Doncaster RLFC head coach Richard Horne faces a selection headache ahead of Sunday's opening League One Super 8s clash against Keighley Cougars at the Keepmoat Stadium.
Richard HorneRichard Horne
Richard Horne

With the club, who also boast an injury-free squad, having brought in three new players last week Horne will have 28 players to chose from when it comes to picking a 19-man squad on Friday.

“Obviously a lot of players are going to be disappointed but my main focus will be picking what I feel is the best team to face Keighley,” Horne told The Star.

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“Some people might be unhappy at losing their place to a new player we’ve just brought in who we feel will strengthen the squad and boost our promotion prospects, but that can’t be helped and it’s something all clubs have done.

“It’s all down to the players: their attitude and performance are key to them being selected and keeping their places.

“All the players have been working hard in training and I know they are looking forward to the start of the 8s and so am I.

“We’ll be playing competitive games every week, whereas in the regular league season just finished there were games against the development sides which we were expected to win. I certainly would have been disappointed had any of them done a job on us because we’d not had the right attitude.

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“We know we’ll have to play well in seven games if we want to finish in a top-five play-off spot or challenge for third place and we’ll be doing everything we can this week to make sure the players are in the right frame of mind ahead of Sunday’s game.

“Even though we ended the (regular) season with three successive wins we’ve still had things to work on and hopefully we’ll see the benefits of that this weekend.”