Doncaster RLFC: 'A lot of players had bad games' - Richard Horne questions attitude in Dons defeat

Beaten just once since being routed 31-0 at the Keepmoat Stadium in early June, second-placed Oldham avenged an 1895 Cup defeat on the same ground when posting a 40-14 win.

Despite the Dons opening the scoring head coach Richard Horne admitted his charges were second-best for most of the game.

“It’s the first time this season in the league that we’ve been on the end of a score-line like that; we’ve always been in games,” he said.

“I’ve never questioned the boys’ intent or attitude before but it wasn’t there today and a lot of players had bad games.

“It didn’t help losing Jordie Hedges with a badly cut forehead, which needed specialist hospital treatment back in Doncaster, when it was just 6-4.

“We scored just before the break, after conceding three tries, to get it back to 18-8 but we hadn’t played well in the first half and it just papered over the cracks,” said Horne.

“We spoke about needing to score first in the second half during the break because if we scored first if was ‘game on’ but if they scored first it was probably the game gone.

“They are a good team but I don’t think they did anything special other than run hard and hit hard.

“Because the (3G) pitch is so tight there’s no room to move it about like we like to play. We tried to do that at times but our handling was poor, our slow ruck speed too slow and their defensive line speed good.”