Doncaster RLFC hooker Greg Burns still confident of Betfred Championship rugby next season

“We are still in there fighting for second spot and you never know what is going to happen between now and the end of the season,” he said after the Dons regained third spot with a 22-19 win away to Workington Town.

If the Dons do miss out on second spot, which guarantees home games throughout the play-offs, the defeat against Hurricanes the weekend before last will have proved crucial.

Like the rest of his team-mates, the former Sheffield Eagles man didn’t see the result coming. Neither can he fully explain what went wrong.

“I don’t think I could put my finger on one thing,” he reflected. “They played really smart and we played some dumb rugby at times. I think we embarrassed ourselves on the day to be honest.

“It was our first home defeat of the season and everyone knows that we set ourselves the target of winning the league and going through the season unbeaten at home.

“We knew ahead of the Workington game that we’d not suddenly become a bad team overnight because of back-to-back defeats, but that we had to work hard to turn things around.

“Home advantage in the play-offs is massive – especially for us because we like playing on the big pitch here, which suits our style of play.”

Although North Wales Crusaders, who trailed 40-4 at the break, suffered a shock 40-38 defeat at home to Cornwall last weekend, Burns says the Dons won’t be taking them lightly in Sunday’s game which has been switched to Chester RFU’s ground.

“Like Workington they got some big middles (forwards),” he says.

Burns has proved a consistent performer in the Dons’ ranks since moving up the M1 at the start of last season.

“It’s been a good move for me, and apart from when I suffered a broken cheekbone early last season, I’ve played a lot of games since I’ve been here,” he said.

Burns came up through the ranks at Sheffield and played a number of first-team games for the club including the inaugural 1895 Cup final at Wembley where they beat Widnes Vikings.

“It was a great experience to play at Wembley even though we had to play after the Challenge Cup final,” he said.

“I think the competition is a good idea because it gives clubs below the Super League the chance of playing at Wembley.

"I just think the format was better in the year we won it; you had to win more games than now.”