Doncaster RLFC return to Betfred Championship action after a blank weekend at the LNER Community Stadium on Sunday against a York Knights side who have been running as hot as the weather in the last couple of weeks.

The Knights powered their way into the semi-finals of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup last weekend with an impressive 39-6 home win over Widnes Vikings.

York, who finished fourth last season, suffered a shock 50-4 win away to promoted Oldham at Boundary Park in their opening league game of the season and also suffered a 7-6 home defeat against last season’s runners-up Toulouse Olympique in a game decided by a drop goal.

They suffered a third successive defeat when going down 18-10 against current league leaders Halifax Panthers at the LNER Stadium a week after dumping the unbeaten West Yorkshire side out of the 1895 Cup on the same ground.

They recorded their first league win when beating Batley Bulldogs 23-10 at Mount Pleasant and followed that up with an even more impressive 36-12 win against Barrow Raiders up in Cumbria, where half-back Liam Harris helped himself to a hat-trick.

Harris, who was on loan from Hull FC at the time, set a new Dons points-in-a-match record in Betfred League One against the now defunct West Wales Raiders when bagging a 38-point haul during a club-record 102-6 win in a game played at Featherstone’s Millenium Stadium back in 2018

His half-back partnership with former England international hooker Paul McShane, who joined the club from Super League Castleford Tigers at the end of last season, is likely to prove one of the York’s biggest threats.

“We all know what Liam can do from the time he was with us before he joined York,” said Dons head coach Richard Horne as we do Paul McShane – a former Man of Steel winner (Super League Player of the Year) whether he’s playing hooker or half-back.

“But it’s not just those two we’ll have to worry about on the day. They have good players all over the park and they are a quality team who are well coached by (ex-Wakefield Trinity head coach) Mark Applegarth and I expect to be there or thereabouts again come the end of the season.

“Having said that, we’ll go into the game on the back of two good performances against Widnes and Toulouse and that will give us confidence though we know we’ll have to play well and capitalise on our chances.

“It would have been a tough one to take if we hadn’t have got the win over Toulouse after suffering a narrow defeat against Widnes in a game we could have gone either way.”