INTERVIEW | Dons head coach Richard Horne reacts to loss away at London Broncos

Dons head coach Richard Horne says his side "made it hard for themselves" as they fell to a heavy defeat in the Betfred Championship away at London Broncos.

Despite scoring four tries on the road against the league favourites and leaders, the Dons found themselves on the wrong end of a 68-18 scoreline after 80 minutes.

And despite started both halves strongly and scoring first in both, the head coach came down to a combination of mistakes from his own side and a strong opposition in front of them.
"We started the game okay," Horne said. "We got that early lead, but after that, I just think that the athleticism they have beat us.
"They were winning contacts, winning collisions, finding some offloads and we really struggled with it.
"When we did make errors, they punished us and I think we only had two good ball sets in the first half so there was a lack of opportunity and we made some errors when we got in good ball so we didn't really build any sort of pressure.
"We made it hard for ourselves.
"We completed a few sets at the start of the second half, put the ball on top of wingers' heads and came up with a couple of tries when we did that.
"When we put them under some pressure, we looked like we were going to cause them some problems, but we just didn't do it enough and then we started making some errors and they started getting some ascendancy in the game.
"It was disappointing because we believed that we could come here and give a better account of ourselves and I don't believe that we showed the best version of us, but, on the other side of it, they're a very good outfit."
As the Dons' eyes remain firmly locked on the Championship play-offs come the end of the 2026 season, Horne stressed the importance of responding next time out, immediately after the loss in Kent.
"We've got Swinton away next week and we'll prep for that and get ready for that game. It's a big one for us on the back of a loss, so we need to make sure that we react in the right way and have a response on the back of this performance."
The Dons will now look to bounce back from defeat and return to winning ways at the first time of asking as they travel to Heywood Road to face off with Swinton Lions on Sunday, July 19.