Doncaster RLFC: Play-off exit 'harder to take this year'

Doncaster RLFC No 2 Peter Green says defeat in Sunday’s Betfred League One play-off semi-final was probably harder to take than last season’s exit at the same stage of the competition.
Dons' Brandon DouglasDons' Brandon Douglas
Dons' Brandon Douglas

“We felt confident going into the first play-off game at Newcastle,” said Green. “We’d got players back from injury and the squad was looking strong.

“But we lost props Brandon Douglas and Russ Spiers and loose-forward Jordie Hedges in the play-offs and that hit us hard going forward.

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“The props who started the game at Newcastle on Sunday knew that they would have to play big minutes and they possibly decided to pace themselves.

“Newcastle got off to a fast start, as we did when we beat them in the first play-off game, and they scored three first half tries.

“We thought that we could get back into the game when we scored just after half-time to make it 18-4.

“You could see that the lads started to have some belief because we’d come back from similar positions before. But we didn’t kick on even though we still felt that we were in the game until the final quarter.

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“You have to credit Newcastle for that. I thought that they outmuscled us in the forwards. Their defensive line speed was very good and we struggled to get any tempo when we had the ball.

“They kept us pinned in our own half for long periods with some strong defence and good kicking which made it hard for us to mount attacks although we did create some chances.

“Although, as I say, I still thought we were in the game until quite late on, the 34-4 score-line probably was a fair reflection.”

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