Doncaster RLFC prepare for testing play-off clash with Barrow Raiders

Doncaster RLFC face a testing tie against Barrow Raiders in the first round of the Betfred Championship play-offs at the Club Doncaster Sports Village on Sunday (3pm).

The Dons, who finished fourth at the end of the regular season, and Barrow, who finished sixth, both lost their respective home games during the regular season.

Barrow posted an impressive 36-10 away win over the Dons in late May, in what was the South Yorkshire club’s second game in four days whereas the Cumbrians had not played for ten days.

The Dons, who pulled out all the stops in the return last month, travelling up early and resting at an hotel, scraped a last-ditch 26-25 win at Craven Park courtesy of a long-range penalty goal by scrum-half Connor Robinson.

The half-back who needs just two more successful kicks to set a new British record of 42 consecutive goal kicks, sat out last weekend’s game at Goole with a slight calf problem but is expected to be available to face the Raiders.

“Had Connor played he would probably have broken the record because both our first two tries were in front of the posts but he was happy to stand down to make sure he was fit for the play-offs,” said head coach Richard Horne.

The Dons boss, who is also hoping to have several other players to sit out the Goole game available, admits his charges will have to be better this weekend than they were the last.

“We inflicted pain on ourselves against Goole and we need to be better than that,” he said. “We made 13 errors and if we do that against Barrow we’ll be in trouble.”

Looking ahead to the Barrow game Horne said: “We are looking forward to what promises to be a great game.

“They finished their regular league season the week before last so they’ll be a bit fresher but we’ve got home advantage and we’ll be ready for them.

“We know it’s going to be a physical game; they always are against them because they’ve got a lot of big bodies. Their edges are also difficult to handle as well because they’ve got some pace out there.

“We are under no illusions that it’s going to be a tough game; all play-off games are tough. Because of where we finished we’ll get a second chance (via a different route) if we get beat this weekend but don’t want to be relying on that. We want to book our place in the next round where we’ll be up against one of the top two.

“London, who we are going to meet at some stage if we hope to win the play-offs, are obviously the favourites. But the fact that Oldham recently ended their 100 per cent record shows that teams can put them under pressure and be in a game with them as we were when we played them at home earlier in the season.”