Doncaster RLFC: Thornton demands improvement in attacking play

Doncaster RLFC boss Gary Thornton will continue to focus on the team's attacking play at training this week.

Despite seeing his side take their try tally to ten in their last two games in Sunday’s opening League One game against Coventry Bears at the Keepmoat Stadium, Thornton admits to having mixed feelings.

“Again I was pleased with our defence because for the second week running we’ve not been broken down in open play,” he said.

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“The back three gifted them their try but overall structurally I’m really pleased with how we are looking because defence is probably the hardest part of the game to fix up.

“Obviously the (wet and cold) conditions proved a great leveller and both sides struggled to control the ball.

“I thought that we made a good start and played really well in the first 20 minutes or so and showed some good shape, and we probably should have been further ahead than we were.

“We lost it (shape) a little bit in the second quarter, though we got it back at the back end of the game.

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“I didn’t want us to play one-up rugby and we don’t want to play like that but sometimes you have to adapt to the conditions.

“We got the win, which was the main thing, but we’ve also still got a lot of work to do on our attacking game.

“We are miles away from being where we want to be with the ball.

“I thought we scored some good tries but we just need to be better and we will be.

“We had a new half-back pairing and we probably need a bit of continuity going forward.”

The Dons travel to North Wales Crusaders on Sunday.