Kingstone Press Championship Preview: Doncaster v London Broncos
Doncaster’s new coach Gary Thornton was taking the positives from last week’s outing against Bradford Bulls.
“There were some positives against Bradford,” he said.
“We had a bit of a dig in the first half, and at 18-6 down were still in the game at that point but in the second half we totally capitulated.
“We only had 17 players training last week and had to bring in a couple of lads from Hull on dual reg in James Cunningham and Jansin Turgot so we were pretty bust up and playing people out of position.
“We didn’t have any natural half-backs so I knew it was going to be tough, it’s just the score line that disappointed me really.
“I think some of the stuff in the second half was representative of a team who have lost 15 games on the bounce. The confidence just started to disappear in the second half.
“London Broncos had a good win last week and they must have played really well but they’ve got a tough schedule having played Batley on Wednesday night which will be a short turnaround and could work in our favour.
“I’m hoping to get some bodies back this week so all being well we’ll be able to put out a decent 17 against them.”
London Broncos backed up their terrific win over Leigh Centurions with a victory at Batley Bulldogs on Wednesday.
Coach Andrew Henderson said: “It’s been a great week so far and hopefully we’ll end it on a high at Doncaster on Sunday.
“It’s been a good month for us, which started at the Summer Bash. If we were going to have a chance of a top four finish we had to get something out of the Summer Bash, which we did.
“We were disappointed with the game against Bradford, the effort and attitude was great in that game but our execution wasn’t.
“We addressed that through the week and fixed it up for the Leigh game and thoroughly deserved the result, which has given the players a lot more self-belief and confidence.
“It was always going to be a tough ask going to Batley three days later. We were a little bit flat and some of our execution was poor but in the second half, coming down the hill, we got a bit of momentum and finished off some opportunities. We showed some real strong resilience at the end.
“We come now into our third game in seven days and I’ll be saying to the players ‘let’s not take this one for granted’ because even though Doncaster haven’t recorded a win, they’ll be looking at this game as an opportunity to get a result.
“They are going to be really geared up for it so we’ve got to make sure we’re humble and honest and professional in the way we go about things.”