The Dons website says the list is of a 22-man sqaud but there are only 21 names listed. I wonder if they've missed someone off or whether they can't count!

I think it's a typo cause the rules say 21 man squad.

In other number news, in a Yorkshire post interview Richard Horne said we had a squad of 26. We have 25 named so assuming one of the trialists has signed on (or another typo)

We put 50 on them away last season (let's not talk about the home fixture) and while we have massively improved and have named a very strong squad the Midlands seem at the same level, I'd personally have the handicap at mid 50's and would be disappointed if we couldn't cover that.

The way the fixtures/groups work, assuming us and Sheffield both beat Midlands we could draw the last game and both go through. Not suggesting either team would do that deliberately

So just out of curiosity what 17 would we all go with for Midlands out of the 21 man squad?

I'll start

1. Craig Hall liked his link up play opening up Hull last week and feel we would be wasting him putting him wider

2. Josh Guzdek Moved him to the wing and replaced Halliday. Halliday did well when he came back from the yellow card but since all our wingers/fullbacks did well and someone had to miss out the miscatch and sinbining swung it

3. Jason Tali Honestly this was a real 50/50 for me between him and Hey. Obviously we could see Tali more as he was on our side of the pitch and he was against the younger players I think, but it was one of the better games I've seen him play in a while. I'm pretty sure Hey was the one who get dragged back about 10 metres or so but also made some good runs. Could go either way on this one

4. Reece Lyne
5. Luke Briscoe
6. Ben Johnstone
7. Connor Robinson
8. Keelan Foster
9. Joe Lovodua
10. Suaia Matagi
11 Brett Ferres the only one of the squad that didn't get any minutes under his belt against Hull

12 Alex Sutcliffe Picked over Smeaton as despite the dropped balls had a wow of a game in both attack and defence.

13 Loui McConnell

14 Watson Boas
15 Pauli Pauli
16 Brad Knowles
17 Alex Holdstock

I'm imagining Brad and Alex as props to allow Pauli to roam wider like he did against Hull to good effect. so I'm thinking rotate him as an impact sub with Ferres coming off. I feel like Kenga struggled to keep up defensively so he would be the prop to miss out for mine.

Any other ideas/ team line ups others would go with? I'm sure some will think differently and am curious as to how we will differ and what ideas others will have.

Guzdek
Halliday
Hey
Lyne
Briscoe
Johnston
Robinson
Matagi
Lovodua
Knowles
Smeaton
Sutcliffe
McConnell

Pauli
Holdstock
Hall
Boas

Ferres doesn’t get in the 17 for me unless he’s getting game time, tali/hey will depend on form. Think tali looked stronger last week so could be him today

According to the BBC website, Lovodua isn't playing. Boas is hooker with a bench of Holdstock, Pauli, Kenga and Tali.

Is Boas playing the full 80 minutes? I'm confused!

Result: Midlands 4 Dons 40

Apparently there has been a bug in the camp which meant 5 or so weren't available

Some interesting results today.

Keighley 35 - 6 Dewsbury and Oldham 24 - 20 Halifax

Stand out but Hunslet 12-62 Featherston and North Wales Crusaders 12-40 Swinton are also Hunslet and North Wales were in the play offs with us last year too.

Not sure whether we can look at the first 2 results and see there being less difference between the two leagues than one would think or look at the last two and conclude the opposite.

Match Report

rlhttps://www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk/article/1628/report-%7C-midlands-4-dons-40rl

Kind of reads like Midlands put their all into the start then fell away as we started going up the gears.

Pauli got a yellow for a late hit and it was during that period they scored their only try so they didn't get anything against 13.

Also reads like a lot of the final passes weren't coming off in the first half so still a lot of improvement for us.

We'll just have to see how we do against Sheffield and then over a month off to work on things

We looked good in defense only conceding one try in the corner when we where down to 12.

Forwards looked strong and carried hard while Hall looked composed in the fullback roll.

Very happy with our first competitive hit out , hopefully not many injuries however Midland look to have recruited well and will shock a few sides if they play like they did today.

Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjdkdCfmSOw

Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjdkdCfmSOw