Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:03 pm  

Strange game. We were poor first half playing in a similar manner to last Sunday and went in at 16-16. Much more direct at the start of the second half and went onto rack up 50 unanswered points for a very comfortable win. Rosslyn Park F.C. was a perfectly adequate venue for the match with a decent enough crowd (quite possibly more than there would have been at PL). Seemed to be quite a few of the hosts fans present which is good. There was a burger van for those wanting food and a nice pint of Wandle at the bar.

Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:12 pm  

Shocking first 40 minutes from London, extremely worrying better opposition would have posted a lot more points than donny did. Second half I think donny just ran out of steam which was the difference.
Negatives, London have very little clue what to do on last tackle. Even in second half couldn't seem to come up with anything. Giving away a set restart on Yr own 20 5th tackle unforgivable.
Positives, second half support play much better. Discipline seemed generally better, apart from too many ptb infringements.
That first half performance thought London had found there level!

Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:14 pm  

Counting heads I reckon around 400 mark! A decent number of donny fans to be fair and credit to em noisy enough.

Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:14 pm  

northernbloke wrote:

Negatives, London have very little clue what to do on last tackle.

That's nothing new. Been clueless for some time now. I suppose having a fitness guy as coach doesn't help.

Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:21 pm  

Quite a few unforced errors first half let Donny back in after dominant start. Obviously Eccles got into them at half time. We badly need a better kick option. Does anyone know if Plough Lane is available for the next round?

Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:26 pm  

jbuzza wrote:

Strange game. We were poor first half playing in a similar manner to last Sunday and went in at 16-16. Much more direct at the start of the second half and went onto rack up 50 unanswered points for a very comfortable win. Rosslyn Park F.C. was a perfectly adequate venue for the match with a decent enough crowd (quite possibly more than there would have been at PL). Seemed to be quite a few of the hosts fans present which is good. There was a burger van for those wanting food and a nice pint of Wandle at the bar.

Totally agree Buzza although the tries by Leyland Snr and Junior in first half were excellent.Doncaster had some brights spells and I thought their 29 caused us problems but the kind of folded and we kept flooding through the middle. Basset, Leyland Snr and Ulberg were our best players. I thought the ground was perfectly fine for the 200/250 that were there seemed the right size. On the burger van I was surprised how slow service was but less surprised than hearing that the Robert (the Holmes part of the sign had fallen off) Stand was not due for demolition. If that stand passes it’s next health and safety something is genuinely wrong.

Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:30 pm  

jbuzza wrote:

That's nothing new. Been clueless for some time now. I suppose having a fitness guy as coach doesn't help.

I looked very carefully and I could only see one guy who looked like he was part of a wider coaching team. What happened to all that Eccles as director with additional coaching staff malarkey. If I had to guess, which I do, I think it’s just him doing two jobs with some physio’s. No wonder he’s so miserable in the video interviews. Who can blame him. Anyway Wembley here we come.

Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 9:26 pm  

A good result all told, but probably a game we had to work a bit harder than anticipated to dominate in. Thought we started the first half in fairly strong fashion and like the Swinton game, our defence was generally strong, but we allowed errors and poor decisions to creep in. Tbf to Donny they made the most of the opportunities and put on some nice scores.

Must have had a bit of a flea in the ear at half time as we were much more direct and dominated through the middle second half. We are a powerful team when we get a roll on but we seem to avoid doing the hard yards at times, which is frustrating.

I've criticised Horsman and Macani previously, but thought they both had decent games. Never thought I'd see Horsman fold an opposition backrower, but he did in the first half and put himself about. Both Leylands were very good again too, nice to see Bill shaping up into a real solid first-grader. Bit of a worry on Will Lovell, came off injured and looked to be really struggling.

All in all a pretty convincing scoreline after an inconsistent start and nice to keep the cup run and winning momentum going.

Re: Doncaster : Sat Apr 01, 2023 9:37 pm  

Some soft running from some Albert in particular took ball at standstill and fell into tackles.

Re: Doncaster : Sun Apr 02, 2023 9:13 am  

northernbloke wrote:

Some soft running from some Albert in particular took ball at standstill and fell into tackles.

From most, but Emmanuel’s tank job run in the second half certainly lifted things.