Doncaster RLFC: ‘We’ve let ourselves down but we’ll turn it around’

But skipper Sam Smeaton, the man who did more than most to secure the club promotion from League One last season, is hoping to lead by example and steer the team away from the foot of the table after three successive defeats.

”We started with a nice win against York Knights but we haven’t been able to build on that, though we played well in defeat against Sheffield Eagles,” said last season’s top try-scorer. “We’ve let ourselves down with silly errors and other things in our last two games against Wakefield and Featherstone and we conceded a lot of points in the process.”

As well as conceding nearly 100 points in their last two games, the Dons have managed just two tries in reply.

Said the veteran second-rower: “We haven’t been creating a lot of scoring chances but we haven’t had much ball to attack with due to the handling errors. When we do get hold of the ball all the defensive work we are having to do is taking away our energy.

“We are putting in a lot of work in attack but often to no avail. It’s not due to a lack of effort.

“It’s a long season and we are confident that we can turn things around. We’ve shown glimpses of what we can do in our first four games; we just need to cut out the errors and keep working hard and double down on what we are doing in training and try and battle our way up the table.

“We knew that it would be a tough start when the fixtures came out and we knew what to expect but we are learning. We’ve seen that if you make a mistake in a dangerous field position you are likely to get punished.”

Although on paper the club’s next two games - Barrow (away) and Dewsbury (home) - might look easier than the previous four, Smeaton is not buying that argument.

“I think they’ll be as tough,” he said. “It’s never easy going up to Cumbria and Barrow have won their last two home games. We’ve then got Dewsbury, who came up with us as champions last season, at home the following week. But we fancy our chances against anybody in this league; we just need to give ourselves a fighting chance by cutting down on our error rate.”