Dons can challenge for top four spot, says powerhouse forward

But the powerhouse second-rower, who lists York as one of his former clubs, is still backing the seventh-placed Dons to come away with the spoils and continue their climb up the table.

“York are a good team who seem to have found some form after a mixed start to the season, but I’m 100 per cent confident,” he told the Free Press.

“We are a great team when we turn up on the day, like we did against Toulouse in our last game, and when we play like that we are hard to beat.”

Although the club’s stop-start beginning to the 2025 campaign has not been without its problems, Pauli says there are positives to having had another weekend off.

“As well as giving the boys the chance to get over a few knocks, we’ve got a few new players in the side this year and having a weekend off gives us the chance to work on things together during the week. “

The former Super League star says he would love to be playing in Sunday’s game.

“Yeah, I’d like to be playing with York being one of my former clubs, but that’s life isn’t it? “

Despite playing at just ’85 per cent’ in games this season before going ‘under the knife’ a couple of weeks ago to clear up a troublesome knee problem, Pauli proved the biggest threat to opposition defences near the line and there were concerns among some supporters that the Dons would miss his power over the next 4-6 weeks.

“The team showed when beating Toulouse that they can win games without me which I knew would be the case,” he said. “It was a top 80-minute performance by all the boys.”

Pauli, who hopes to be back ahead of schedule – though he won’t be rushed back – said: “The surgery went well and when I get back I’ll be a better player than I was at the start of the season and I’ll be able to play for 80 minutes if needed.”

Reflecting on the start to the Betfred Championship, Pauli said: “It’s a tough league again this season but I’m hoping that we can do better than last season’s eighth-placed finish. If we can avoid picking up a lot of injuries I’d like to think that we can be challenging for a top-four spot.

“We’ve got a run of home games to finish the season and if we are there or thereabouts going into that sequence of games then we’ll be well placed because we love playing here.”