Injuries threat to Donstar RLFC dreams

The Dons, who already lacked prop Matty Nicholson (knee), stand-off Jordan Howden (hip) and suspended scrum-half Jordie Hedges, had prop Zak Braham stretchered off with a suspected broken ankle in yesterday’s 40-12 Super8s home defeat to Barrow Raiders at the Keepmoat.

“Jason Tali looks as though he’s injured his medial ligament in his knee and second-rower Brad Foster’s shoulder popped out,” said Thornton, whose side – which could have gone third – dropped to fifth.

“Jordie is banned for the next two games and I’ve conflicting reports on when Jordan will be back.”

Reflecting on defeat, Thornton said: “Barrow played well and have hit form at the right time of the season but we probably saved our worst performance of the year for today.

“The biggest disappointment for me, in addition to the injuries, is that Barrow played exactly like we knew they would but they rolled us down the middle far too easily and our discipline was poor and our completion rate was less than 50 per cent.”

“The three-week break didn’t do us any favours and we looked rusty at times, nor did the fact that we had both half-backs out and had to play a hooker and full-back in what are pivotal roles.

“As a result we didn’t really create anything or cause them too many problems.

“In all honesty the game was probably over at half-time with us trailing 22-0 but I wanted the players to go out in the second half and compete better and we managed two tries.”