Doncaster RLFC: No problem with team discipline - Thornton

The Dons played with just 12 men for 20 minutes in Sunday’s iPro Sport Cup first round defeat at Keighley Cougars during which time they conceded four tries.

“There wasn’t a problem with team discipline and I didn’t mention it at last night’s training session.” Thornton told The Star.

“They were two isolated incidents and Charlie Martin should never have been sin-binned for what I thought was a perfectly legal rugby league tackle.

“It was a ridiculous decision.

“I’ve perhaps less of an objection to Jordie Hedges’ yellow card because it probably was a high tackle, but it certainly proved costly and they scored three tries while he was off.”

Thornton admits that he was more concerned about the quality of the team’s performance than anything else.

“We could have won the game at the end had we taken a different option but they scrambled over for a try at the death after an interception close to their line,” he said.

“But we didn’t play well and we need to get our structure sorted out this week. We played a lot of one-man rugby, which is not us.

“We seemed to want to take them on down the middle and it didn’t work for us.

“There was little cohesion between the two half-backs and as such we didn’t ask a lot of them in attack.

“Saying that, we could have had a couple more tries and should have been more than 12-4 up at half time having played down the slope.”

Martin (knee) is a doubt for Sunday’s Ladbrokes Rugby League Challenge Cup third round tie against Humberside-based Myton Warriors at the Keepmoat Stadium.