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Thornton Upset With Play-Off Exit


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Doncaster Rugby League head coach Gary Thornton felt aggrieved following Sunday's League 1 play-off semi-final defeat at Barrow Raiders.

There were two controversial incidents in the first half with Louis Sheriff having a try disallowed in the eighth minute and Barrow being awarded a try despite the ball hitting referee Tom Crashley in the build up.

Those calls gave Barrow an 18-6 advantage at the break, which helped swing the game for the Cumbrian outfit.

Speaking about the incidents Thornton said: "I was sat at the other side of the field so I couldn't really see Louis Sheriff's effort to be fair, but Louis and Mason Tonks who were right on it were adamant he wasn't in touch. 

"That is the decision of the officials and you have to go with it, it was a tough call and it could of gone our way but it didn't.

"With regards to the Barrow try I thought the rules were that if the ball hit the referee it is a scrum down.

"I can't believe the referee allowed play-on, he got in the way of our defenders, the ball ricocheted off him into Barrow hands which allowed Antony Bate to score, I thought it was a ridiculous decision and I was really disappointed with that.

"Our players can't take the referee out because they will get banned, if the ball strikes the referee it is a scrum down, it is a simple rule, I don't know what the referee was thinking to be honest, but he gave play-on and awarded the try."

"I wasn't impressed with the officiating throughout the game, but that is for somebody else to deal with, our game plan wasn't executed well enough though which is why lost the game, but there were some very bizarre decisions.

Despite what conspired against the Dons in the first period, Thornton praised Barrow for their second half performance, who will now face Toulouse Olympique XIII in the final.

"I'm really disappointed with the score-line, a lot hinged on the first half, we had a few more great opportunities to score with Mark Castle knocking on over the line and Mason (Tonks) throwing a forward pass to Louis (Sheriff), but we didn't execute well enough and bombed the chances which would have put us on the front foot," said Thornton.

"I think that was the turning point, if we had scored those two tries, along with the effort we had ruled out, we would have gone in at half time with the lead and it could have been a different story.

"That said, in the second half we were really running on empty, we didn't really get out of our own half in some tough conditions and against a good Barrow team.

"I thought Barrow took their game up a notch and we couldn't deal with it, they provided some aggressive defence and missing touch twice from penalties didn't help us.

"They certainly cranked up the speed at which they played the ball and we never lived with it to be honest.

"It was definitely an end of season performance in that second half, in particular the last 25 minutes was a last game of the season type performance and I'm disappointed with that."

The result brought Doncaster's season to an end and Thornton says the club must re-group ahead of 2017.

"It was always going to be a tough ask to get out of this division and it is probably going to be just as hard to get out of next year," added Thornton.

"It is difficult, people have to realise this is a tough competition and a tough league which isn't easy.

"We have to go again next year now, we need strengthen and find out where our weaknesses were this season.

"We need to try and recruit a little bit better, we need to bring in some quality to get out of the division which it is going to take."



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