Doncaster RLFC: Muranka biding his time as Dons prepare for promotion rivals Oldham

Like every player in the club’s squad, Muranka wants to be playing regularly. But, despite impressing off the bench against West Wales the previous week, he sat out Sunday’s game at Hunslet – whose coach Gary Thornton signed him during his time at the club.

Muranka has not started a game since early April, though he has been on the bench a number of times.

“Jason is in a similar situation to Aaron Jones-Bishop in the backs,” said assistant coach Pete Green.

“Neither lets the side down and do well when they come in.

“But they both play in positions where there is a lot of competition and they both have quality players in front of them so they really have to be outstanding when they get the chance to keep their place.

“They are both fantastic players and they’ll do whatever they are asked to do and go out and produce some good performances. They both have a great attitude.”

Muranka, who can play either second-row or loose-forward and has even turned out at prop, hopes to be involved in Sunday’s home game against fellow promotion rivals Oldham at the Keepmoat Stadium.

He was in the side beaten 32-12 at Oldham back in June

“They are a tough team and are very physical and they play their home pitch very well and not many teams win over there,” he said.

“Personally, I think it will be a totally different game at the Keepmoat though.

“I think that they’ll try and take us on down the middle again and we’ll have to match them up in that respect and then be smart when we’ve got the ball and be clinical, which we haven’t always been at times this season, whenever we get the chance.

“We haven’t played there for seven weeks and we are all looking forward to getting back there at the weekend because it’s a nice wide pitch and suits the way we like to play.

“It’s been a tough five weeks playing the top two away from home and Hunslet, who were third a couple of weeks ago, and it doesn’t get any easier this weekend.

“But going forward it doesn’t look quite so difficult though we’ve still got to play both Cumbrian clubs and we’ve also got a couple of other tricky games

“It’s really tough at the top and there are a lot of teams along with ourselves who are in contention for a play-off spot.

“I don’t think that we can afford to lose another game during the run-in, especially at home, if we hope to not only make the play-offs but finish high enough to be at home in the semi-finals.”