South Wales Ironmen v Doncaster RLFC: Horne hopes to build on midweek win over Oxford

The Dons moved level on points with York and Newcastle after beating Oxford at Featherstone on Wednesday night following a Jekyll and Hyde display.

The Dons were good value for their 30-8 interval lead but lost their way in the second half and only added one more try.

“They probably got a rocket at half-time and they showed a lot more spirit in the second half,” said head coach Richard Horne.

“We were also playing up the slope in the second half and I know from personal experience that it’s not easy.

“The main thing was that we won, although obviously we were hoping to win by more points than we did because we know we’ve got to improve our points difference. It would be disappointing to miss out on fourth spot on points difference.

“We need to win both remaining games, starting with the trip to South Wales and also look to score some points.

“But I’ll probably not make as much as issue of it in the build-up, or at half-time, as I did on Wednesday because I think it might have put too much pressure on the players.

“I felt that we tried to push the pass at times in the second half as well as taking the wrong attacking options.”

Horne, who says the performance of several players on Wednesday will give him a selection headache, will check on the fitness of centre Jason Tali, skipper Kyle Kesik and prop Mark Castle, who had been pencilled in for a run-out with Hull FC U-23s on Wednesday only for the game to be called off.

“We’ve got a big squad so we don’t need to risk anyone,” he told The Star.

“I don’t know anything about South Wales and I’ll be picking the brains of (assistant coaches) Pete Green and Rhys Lovegrove. But we’ll mainly focus on our game.”