REPORT | Hunslet 28 Dons 8

The Dons fell to only their second defeat of the season as they lost 28-8 to Hunslet at the South Leeds Stadium.

It was a day to forget for the Dons as they struggled to find a rhythm and a sense of consistency amongst themselves and Hunslet caused issues throughout. 

The hosts picked up the first points of the afternoon in the 11^th minute when Harvey Hallas made a line break and drove himself over the line under the posts with former Don Matty Beharrel converting from in front. 

Scrum-half Myles Lawford extended the host’s lead to 10-0 after making a line break from the 20 metre mark, using his speed to get under the posts despite a last-ditch effort to stop him in the in-goal area. Beharrell converted again to make it 12-0.

The momentum continued in the host’s favour with winger Jack Render going over in the corner after a kick from Beharrel took an awkward bounce, with his half partner in crime Lawford picking the ball up and feeding. 

On the 30 minute mark, both sides went down to 12 men when an on-the-pitch incident occurred with captain Sam Smeaton and Josh Jordan-Roberts with both being shown yellow cards. 

In the last ten minutes of the first half, Richard Horne’s side managed to regather themselves with Brad Hey latching onto a Brett Ferres pass with the centre going over for his second try in two games, having scored against Oldham last week. Connor Robinson, who has been so reliable this season, was unable to convert.

Only moments later it seemed like Doncaster had kicked into gear as Misi Taulapapa went over in the corner after some sharp passing across the line, Robinson again unable to convert. 

Hunslet opened the scoring once again in the second half as Lawford continued to cause the Dons issues - this time with a cross-field kick to Render who took the ball well and crashed over to make it 20-8.

Beharrell scored a penalty moments later to make it 22-8. 

The remainder of the second half would be sloppy from both sides when it came to making basic ball handling errors. 

The hosts added the exclamation point with two minutes of the game remaining when a loose pass was intercepted by Lawford who ran 60 metres downfield to score.