Doncaster RLFC boss Richard Horne could ring changes for Workington Town clash

Only scrum-half Connor Robinson and centre Brad Hay retained their place in the club’s back division from the Hunslet game three weeks previously as Horne’s options were boosted by returning players and loan signing Olly Butterworth.

“Some of the performances against the Hurricanes in our 41-10 defeat on Sunday have probably opened the door for others,” he told the Free Press.

“We made far too many dumb mistakes and all the defending that we had to do took the fuel out of the tank and we weren’t able to do what we wanted to do in attack.

“You can only defend your line for so long and we’ve conceded soft tries in our last two games.”

With the Dons having drawn a blank, the Cumbrians climbed above them into third place after their win over improving Cornwall at the weekend following the longest round trip for a game in the UK in the club’s history.

“We’ve got a game in hand over both Hunslet, who have two points more than us, and Workington, but they’ve both got a better points difference,” said Horne.

Horne is hoping that leaders Dewsbury can do the Dons a favour this weekend by beating in-form Hunslet at the South Leeds Stadium.

“If Hunslet win that one they could end up finishing second,” he said.

“We’ve got some tough games coming up in our run-in, starting at Workington and ending with Dewsbury at home and we’ll be trying to win as many as we can and see where that takes us.

“We are still targeting second spot which would give us the opportunity to be at home throughout the play-offs, but Sunday’s defeat could cost us.”

The Dons have twice beaten Town at the Eco-Power Stadium this season.

They beat the Cumbrians 24-20 in the Challenge Cup back in March prior to producing arguably their best performance of the season back in May when they dished out a 46-6 beating in a league game.

Horne is quick to concede his charges face a more daunting challenge in the return.

“It’s never an easy place to go – particularly if the conditions are heavy as could be the case this weekend - and they’ve hit some good form in recent weeks after a mid-season dip,” he said. “So, we are going to have to play well and cut out the unforced errors to beat them.”