Doncaster RLFC turn attention to Challenge Cup clash with Oldham

“We want to rotate the squad a little bit because there are a couple of players who sat out Sunday’s game who need a bit of game-time before we return to league action at Rochdale the following week,” he told the Free Press.

“Although our priority, as we’ve made clear by our statements, is promotion, it’s not a case of not taking the competition seriously,” said Horne. “We want to win every game we play.”

Centre Jason Tali, who was carrying a knock at the weekend, could again sit the game out and fellow PNG international Watson Boas, whose future at the club appears to be in doubt, will definitely be missing.

Whereas the Dons were in action over the weekend fellow League One side Oldham were without a fixture.

“That will probably give us a bit of an advantage but we’ll have to play better than we did against Hunslet,” said Horne.

“We fell behind early on and we were second best in all departments – carrying the ball and defensively in the first 20 minutes or so. When that happens you are going to struggle as a team.

“But we managed to get back into it with a couple of special plays and we got ourselves in front against the run of play. When (winger) Tom Halliday scored in the 40th minute it meant that we came in leading 18-6 despite the fact that they had done a really good job on us in the rucks and they had also won the arm-wrestle.

“We didn’t think the game was won at that stage but we felt that if we scored the first try in the second half that would put us in a strong position.

“But that didn’t happen and we did none of the things we had spoken about doing at half time and we found ourselves camped in our own half for long periods.

“It didn’t help that our last tackle kicks were poor and they returned the ball into our own half and that put our middles under so much pressure. We also made too many basic errors as well – particularly our back three – and their communication has to be better.”