I thought it was a mixed bag of a performance. We had an embarrassment of riches in terms of possession in the Doncaster half yet didn't quite click. Some of that was down to their scrambling defence but often it was down to poor options from us. On the plus side I thought Ryan, Crossley, Laithwaite, Minchella, Peltier, Wood and Kirk were all good. I thought Kirk had his best game for us yet.

I thought Smith, Keyes, Garside and Bustin were ok. Pickersgill too but for all his clean breaks his one on one tackling was poor and his dropped ball for what should have been a fairly simple try was a bit poor. As someone pointed out to me his way of carrying the ball isn’t the most secure.

The rest I thought were quite poor. Chisholm still doesn’t look fit. He tries to play to his instinct but the speed isn’t there to enable him to do that. He disrupted play a few times by running down blind alleys and this led to some wasted possession. Without wanting to single him out I thought Hallas was way off today too. Slow service from dummy half and the needless swinging arm that got penalised leading up to the Doncaster try was poor. Flanagan’s complete brain fart aside he was better than Hallas but I thought we too often took the wrong option. You could see Keyes wanting the ball yet not getting it.

Kicking game was another mixed bag. We kicked dead too often and gave them 7 tackle sets on at least 3 occasions. Not good enough.

Despite all that I thought we looked very good up front where we utterly dominated. Given that we dropped the ball over the line twice and wasted numerous possessions of the ball in the Doncaster 20m area we could and should have scored 50. Points difference could be the difference between 1st and 2nd in this division so we need to be a lot more switched on. I left feeling a bit disappointed.

Doncaster were missing a few of their dual reg lads and it showed. Their centres looked decent but apart from that they were second best. They had a spell on our line for about 4 sets and were held up a few times but we never really looked like we were struggling.

I thought that was probably the best performance this season. Was expecting a lot closer game and I think we could of easily had another 20 points on the board. Defence was very good

Don't think your dates are quite right - I've got the re-arranged home game against the Skolars a week after the West Wales match on Saturday 12th, then Newcastle the following Friday the 18th, unless I've got it wrong again...

Thought we played strongly to be fair and dominated most of the game. For sure there were some big misses, inluding Mr Flanagan's, but I'm sure he doesn't need me to tell him what wally he was. I disagree with the view that we shouldn't have taken the two early on though. Donny were top of the league before the weekend so we expected it to be maybe a bit tighter than it turned out. That said, it was only the goal which kept us in front after Doncaster scored, so a bit of a psychological boost at that point, imo.

Why didn't we press home the advantage though? We seemed to put the cue on the rack at threequarter time.

Think a few players got a bit selfish in the last 30mins. Too many poor options taken. We had a lot of sets in the Doncaster 20 but ruined the chances by going in the wrong direction or running into touch or taking the wrong option. You could see Keyes getting annoyed with the lack of service he was getting at times. Not the greatest game again from Chisholm.

We do play Newcastle on the 18th Bulliac.

I thought Chisholm started off great, breaking the line, decent passing, just started to get sloppy in the second half (as did many) Got to persevere with him. It was an horrendous injury he had and once he gets his confidence up, he'll be ok.

Basically, I agree with that. The only real caveat I have is that, in Chissie's enforced absence, Joe Keyes has developed into our best half and I'd hate to see his development put back. They are both superb halves, with their own strengths and weaknesses and I'd like to see their partnership develop and hope that they find their own distinct roles in the side. I feel sure it will, but of course, Joe has been 'running' the team in Chissie's absence and since his return it just seems they haven't quite sorted out who is doing what and when. It's definitely still work in progress but, if handled properly, it could turn out to be a golden partnership.

I've been away for the weekend with the family so am only just catching up on the game. I assume Mr. Flanagan had a certain try and did something stupid to bomb it. Anyone explain what actually happened with that?

Quote: HamsterChops "I've been away for the weekend with the family so am only just catching up on the game. I assume Mr. Flanagan had a certain try and did something stupid to bomb it. Anyone explain what actually happened with that?'" Watch it here https://www.facebook.com/funnyrugbyleag ... 000578783/

Quote: HamsterChops "I've been away for the weekend with the family so am only just catching up on the game. I assume Mr. Flanagan had a certain try and did something stupid to bomb it. Anyone explain what actually happened with that?'" Watch it here https://www.facebook.com/funnyrugbyleag ... 000578783/

Pickersgill made a clean break and Flanagan was on his inside in support. He takes the pass and has a stroll in under the sticks. Only the muppet starts to celebrate on his way to the line and takes an age to get the ball grounded. So much so that the Dons winger had time to sneak up behind him and push him over the dead ball line before he got the ball down.
It was a shocker, and the score was only 8-6 at the time.

Hopefully Kear went ballistic with him in the sheds.

Kear said he "addressed that issue".

Ah you are correct bulliac. Well hopefully it will be a full strength side against the raiders to help our goal difference out. We need to be more ruthless against these teams.

Well done guys for yesterday, think our false position before yesterday did us no favours as you came taking on a top of the table side and we aint. I felt if we could have got some field position you were take-able defensively but you stifled pretty much everything in our own half, and when we panicked we got worse, again all down to the way you got on top and didn't get off.

Good luck for the rest of the season

Both correct... Next is West Wales and the game after would have been Newcastle had it not been for the re-arranged fixture with London (now scheduled on the free weekend of 12th May).

Cheers pal. Thought your centres were decent. You need an injection of size in the pack though I expect you all know that.

Great stadium, wish we had one like it.