Doncaster RLFC: Green ready for '˜massive' Hunslet clash

Doncaster RLFC assistant coach Pete Green has described tomorrow's League One clash against Hunslet at the South Leeds Stadium as being '˜massive for both clubs.'
Liam HarrisLiam Harris
Liam Harris

“With it being so tight at the top – only two points separating third to eighth – both clubs know how important the game is to the respective play-off hopes,” said Green after Thursday’s training session.

“If we were to beat both Hunslet and Oldham in our next two games that would give our hopes a huge boost.

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“Were we to lose tomorrow we’d find ourselves four points adrift of the play-off spots.”

The Leeds club, coached by former Dons boss Gary Thornton, will be bidding to complete the double over the South Yorkshire side.

“They were much the better side that day and we didn’t deserve to win,” said Green reflecting on the club’s 35-16 defeat at the Keepmoat Stadium.

“We let them get out of their own half far too easily and both our discipline and game-management by the halves were poor.

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“They are areas of our game which we can fix-up and we’ve worked on doing that in training this week. We are also in a different place to where we were then.

“But we also know that we’ve got to play well and get our tactics right on the day to beat them.

“Although they have lost their last two games they’ll be confident of beating us at home having done so at the Keepmoat.

“Though they lost at home to Bradford on Sunday I thought they more than matched them in the forwards.

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“They have a big pack and they’ll be looking to give it to us down the middle so we are going to have to do it tough.”

The Dons will lack new record points scorer Liam Harris who has been recalled by Hull FC.

“When we got Liam back last weekend we thought we might have him a bit longer but Hull picked up a couple of injuries to their half-backs last weekend,” said Green.

Harris started the game at full-back but switched to scrum-half when recent signing Matty Beharrell was starting to struggle

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“Matty’s hamstring felt a bit tight in the first half and having Liam in the side allowed us to bring him off and avoid aggravating the injury,” said Green. “He’s trained all week and he’s fit for tomorrow.”

Second-rower Charlie Martin returns to the Doncaster squad after not being considered for the game against West Wales Raiders after work commitments prevented him from training in the build-up. Jordan Lane is also available as part of the dual-registration deal with Hull.