Doncaster RLFC hope to shine under Saturday night lights

The Dons, who have rarely featured in floodlit games since the switch to summer rugby, will go into the game in a confident frame of mind following an impressive showing in defeat against another top-four side Widnes Vikings last weekend.

“Although we are on the right track, and just need to string a couple of good results together, I wasn’t overly pleased with the result on Sunday as I felt we could have beaten Widnes on the day,” said Dons No 2 Chris Plume.

“It was a case of little things in a lot of different areas which cost us. Fortunately, it’s nothing major and if we can fix them then we’ll be fine going forward.”

Plume says he will be looking for another big game from powerhouse second-rower Pauli Pauli – arguably the best forward on the field on Sunday.

“That’s what Pauli wants to do,” he told the Free Press. “He wants to get the ball in his hands and run at people and we need him to do that because it takes a few defenders to bring him down.

“What we also need to do is to find a way of using him along with the other strike players that we’ve got. He’s coming up with a lot of good stuff, so we tend to go towards him, but we need to find a way of using him when we can and also find other outlets to attack the opposition.

“As I say, it’s going to be another big challenge for us and they’ll be coming here looking to avenge the defeat last season which came on the back of a long unbeaten run, so we are going to have our hands full.

“They are a team who play an expansive game if you allow them to by giving them too much ball and feed them too much energy.

“They are stacked with quality players and have got some big French forwards and some dangerous backs so we’ve got to be on our game.

“I certainly see them being up there at the end of the season along with the likes of Widnes and I’d like to think that we’ll also be up there. People might be surprised me saying that when they look at the table, but we’ve only played three games and there is a long way to go and I feel we’ll get better.”