Doncaster RLFC: Oxford friendly is ideal barometer - Thornton

Dons were well beaten by Hull FC last weekend but host League One opponents this weekend.

“We’ll hopefully know more about how we’ll do next season after tomorrow’s game because we’ll be playing against a team who is going to be in our league and we’ll not be up against the type of quality players Hull brought here last weekend,” said Thornton.

“They were too big and strong for us in the forwards, particularly in the first 20 minutes or so but we are not going to be playing against those sort of players in League One.”

He added: “Of the three pre-season games this is the one that people will be looking to us to win and it’s certainly the game in which we will be measuring ourselves to see where we are in terms of preparation.

“I was much happier with our second half performance against Hull which showed that our fitness levels were good and we’ve got another month to work on that.

“I wanted to take a look at all the players before our first competitive game against North Wales on February 21 and we’ve only got two games to do that.

“Unfortunately, a number of players are still injured and will be missing tomorrow so there won’t be too many changes to the squad – although Kyle Kesik is back.”