West Hull 0 Doncaster RLFC 54: Dons in Challenge Cup romp

The Dons eased any pre-match nerves ahead of the clash against the National Conference League Premier Division amateurs,when Hull-based centre Liam Welham latched on to a dropped ball and hacked it on to claim his second try in as many games after just a couple of minutes.

Australian scrum-half Jordie Hedges, making his debut in the Challenge Cup, added the extras to make it 6-0.

The Dons doubled their lead just before the end of the first quarter when prop Connor Scott, one of the most impressive of the club’s new signings to date, forced his way over from close range near enough for Tom Carr to convert.

Centre Matt Cook, deputising for the unavailable Sam Doherty, broke strongly down the left following some neat handling by the League One side, before sending winger Aaron Jones-Bishop over for another converted try to make it 18-0.

The youngster then produced a finish his elder brother Ben would have been proud off during his time at Leeds Rhinos, when rounding off another bout of snappy handling.

The one-way traffic continued with substitute Matt Nicholson scoring with his first touch a couple of minutes later.

With Carr converting both it meant the Dons had scored a point a minute in the first half-hour.

To their credit the home side didn’t let their heads drop and but for some solid defence would have opened their account in the closing stages of the half.

It took the Dons nearly ten minutes to score their first points of the second half – a try by Hedges again converted by Carr.

But as was the case in the first, others quickly followed with Matty Welham and Jack Walton helping to take the score to 48-0 just after the hour mark.

Scott saw the Dons top the half-century with a second close-range try.

The home side’s efforts in attack finally looked to have paid off when touching down in the last couple of minutes only for the score to be disallowed for a forward pass.

Jones-Bishop, bundled into touch just short of the line, almost rubbed salt into their wounds at the death.

“We went there to do a job and we did it,” said head coach Gary Thornton.

“We scored some good tries but we were a bit sloppy with the ball at times, though to be fair the pitch wasn’t the best.

“Defensively we were very good and we ironed out some of the problems from the previous week.

“To be fair to them they never gave up and threw a few different things at us, but we dealt with them and it was nice to keep a clean sheet.”

Thornton is hoping for a home tie in tomorrow’s fourth round draw.

Dons: Sherrif, Jones-Bishop, Cook,L Welham, M Welham, Carr, Hedges, Scott,Kesik, Aizue, Foster, Tonks, Milton. Subs:Cross,Braham, Nicholson, Walton.