DONCASTER coach Richard Horne is looking forward to having at least another two tilts at London Broncos this year as he reflects on the one that got away.
The South Yorkshire side led the table-topping team from the capital 16-6 going into the final 15 minutes of their recent Championship clash.
But the visiting Broncos hit back with four converted tries to clinch a 30-16 victory and leave the Dons boss hugely disappointed.
The sides meet again, this time in London, in the quarter-finals of the 1895 Cup the weekend after next.
The Dons will return south for the league return on Saturday, July 11, one of two Broncos homes games switched to Ebbsfleet United Football Club’s Kuflink Stadium in Northfleet, Kent during pitch maintenance work at the Cherry Red Records Stadium in Wimbledon.
It’s possible there could also be a play-off showdown, and Horne said: “They are the standard-setting side, very fit and strong, and while we came close, we have seen areas where we need to improve to challenge them even more strongly.”
Horne considered a missed opportunity in 59th-minute, when former Bronco Cory Aston couldn’t keep hold of a Luis Johnson pass with the try-line beckoning, as a turning point.
“I think we’d been the dominant team, and score that and we were probably 16 points ahead, and it would have been a different game,” he reflected.
“But we didn’t score, instead turned the ball over, the escape lifted them and we didn’t respond.
“We started making a few errors, we put ourselves under pressure, they stuck to their processes, and we broke.
“But physically, we were good, and I don’t think they’d have met a team like us all season.”