Impressive new arrival Holmes confident Dons can move through the gears
Doncaster RLFC boss Richard Horne knew what he was getting when he secured the services of Bradford Bulls full-back Tom Holmes during the close season.
Bulls’ decision to let the former Castleford and Featherstone star, who can also play stand-off, leave the club after securing promotion to the Super League came as something of a surprise given how well he had played in 2025 and Horne and CEO Carl Hall were quick to pounce upon learning of his availability.
“I enjoyed my time at Bradford; it was just a case of the new head coach coming in with his own plans,” said 30 year-old Holmes, who makes no secret of the fact that he would have liked to have had another crack at the top flight.
Despite his disappointment at missing out, Holmes still takes a keen interest in the Bulls’ Super League campaign and says: “I think they’ve done okay. They’ve probably surprised a few teams and they play an attractive brand of rugby.”
His main focus, however, is helping the Dons to be successful in the new-look Betfred Championship.
“I’m enjoying my time at Doncaster and I think I’ve settled in well,” he said. “I knew some of the players before I came here which obviously helped.
“I knew that Doncaster had some good players because they gave us two tough games in the league last season and I also knew that they were also planning to make some good signings and that also helped convince me that it would be a good move.”
Few would argue that there is more pressure on a full-back these days than arguably at any time in the game’s history due to the number of kicks they have to field during a game as well as organising the defensive line and linking up in attack.
Holmes has excelled in all three departments since joining the club and it’s hard to argue with Horne’s claim that he hasn’t had a bad game all season. He has certainly caught the eye in attack.
“I like to run with ball in hand and I also like to score tries as well as help set up them up,” he said. “It’s certainly good to have players who can finish off moves on my outside. We’ve got a lot of strike across the back division which is one of our strengths.”
The Dons started the second half of the season with a win ten days ago but remain sixth after last weekend’s games. They will not fall further down the table as the result of not having a game this weekend due to their impressive points difference.
Said Holmes: “We’ve probably lost games we were expected to win in the first half of the season – particularly early on away to Midlands Hurricanes – and we had lost four league and cup games on the trot prior to beating Salford away last time out.
“Even though we won, and played well in patches, we probably weren’t at our best. That was our first game for over two weeks and it’s not ideal. I know sometimes you can be fresh after break but I prefer playing every week because it helps maintain consistency.
“We’ll have had another two-week break when we play (lowly) Halifax at The Shay on Sunday week and hopefully we’ll play better over the 80 minutes than we did against Salford because with some tough away games against sides currently above us coming up it’s important that we go there and get a win.
“As I say, we’ve got some tough games coming up but they are games that I feel we can win if we are at our best.”
Holmes, who has been carrying a foot injury in recent games, is hoping the break will have helped improve the problem ahead of the Halifax game where the Dons will face a side unrecognisable from the one they beat on home soil at the start of the season due to their financial problems coming to a head in the following weeks which led to a mass departure of leading players.