North Wales Crusaders vs Dons 27/05/12

Match Preview

Doncaster Rugby League are back on the road again and make the journey to Wrexham to face North Wales Crusaders at their Racecourse Ground on Sunday 27th May - please note the earlier kick-off time of 2.30pm.

The Dons will be looking to get back to winning after they suffered a heavy defeat against fellow promotion chasers Workington Town last Sunday.

They looked good value for money and raced into an 18 nil lead before former Great Britain forward Jamie Thackray came off the bench and changed the game in favour of the hosts.

The second placed Dons will be without dual registration Danny Cowling, who suffered a compound fracture of an index finger last weekend, for around 6 weeks. Both Dean Colton (knee) and Craig Lawton (illness) are available for selection whilst full back Mick Butterfield will undergo a late fitness test.

Dons' head coach Tony Miller said: "We've got quite a long break after this fixture and it will give some of the lads some much needed rest time and we'll hopefully have a few players back from injury by the time we play Gateshead at the Keepmoat (Sunday 24th June).

"Last week was obviously disappointing and we've draw a line under that performance. It's important we bounce back against North Wales and we've got the personnel and the character to do just that.

"We're expecting a tough game against the Crusaders and they've picked up some decent wins especially the recent one at Oldham.

"Nobody was more disappointed than the players last week and they'll be doing their best to bring the points home."

North Wales Crusaders have signed the experienced back row forward Andy Gorski on loan from Championship club Swinton Lions and is expected to go straight into their squad for this weekend.

Danny Hulme faces a late fitness test on a calf injury before their head coach Clive Griffiths can finalise his squad. However, Jono Smith still remains up to three weeks away from a return to first team action.

Griffiths said: "Having last week off gave us a bit of a break, but I'm not keen on missing too many games.

"However, we did some extra training and we've been able to stretch things out over a full week, which was good for us.

"Doncaster are going to be hurt by their loss at Workington. They'll be favourites on Sunday, obviously - but Oldham were favourites against us too.

"I just hope we can continue to show that we'll be competitive week in, week out. That was the aim coming into this division, and we're gradually getting there."

He added: "Doncaster are a very potent side. Paul Cooke is a great talisman, and with Craig Fawcett and Kyle Kesik they've got a good triangle in the middle."