REPORT | Dons 22 Barrow Raiders 32

The Dons were beaten 32-22 by Barrow Raiders at the Keepmoat Stadium in their opening league fixture of 2020.

Tries from Ryan Boyle, Brandon Douglas, Josh Rickett and Jason Tali were not enough to get the Dons off to a winning start in the new campaign.

The Raiders had the first real chance of the game after back-to-back sets on the Doncaster line, prop forward Carl Forster was held-up though by some resolute defending from the home side.

The Dons were the next to go close in a tight opening to the game, Brad Foster looked to be over but landed just short of the Barrow line and the visitors survived.

With the defences coming out on top in the early exchanges, Barrow took the opportunity to post the first points when Jamie Dallimore converted a penalty goal with a quarter of the game gone.

It didn’t take long after that for the first try of the encounter to come along, as Ryan Boyle got on the end of a flat pass from Graeme Horne to open the Dons' account for the 2020 campaign.

They came close to another score a few minutes later when winger Sam Doherty found himself in space down the right and looked to twist his way over, but referee Billy Pearson adjudged that Perry Singleton had done enough to stop the ball from being grounded.

The Dons piled the pressure on after that and were rewarded with their second try of the game when substitute Brandon Douglas powered his way over to extend the lead to 10 points.

Barrow were dealt another blow with seven minutes of the first-half remaining when back-rower Dan Morrow was sinbinned after stopping Watson Boas illegally as the Papua New Guinea half-back looked to break through.

Although they were at a numerical disadvantage the Raiders scored a crucial try in the final few minutes of the half, prop forward Ryan Duffy received the ball from Dallimore and used his considerable strength to get him over the line. Dallimore added the two to close the gap to four points at the break.

The first points after half-time came the way of the home side when after a short-side play, Jason Tali found Josh Rickett who squeezed over in the corner for his first try of the season.

The Raiders had to find a response from somewhere and it was Duffy who provided it as he once again had too much strength for the Dons defence and went over for his second.

Paul Crarey’s side had the momentum and went back in front with an hour gone, as hooker Wartovo Puara bundled his way over from dummy-half despite the Dons’ desperate attempts to stop him.

Dallimore was proving to be a real handful and it was his try nine minutes from time that took the game away from Richard Horne's side, he went over after finding space on the left to spark jubilant scenes from the visitors’ bench.

Tali then weaved his way through to set up a nail-biting finale but the Raiders finished off the scoring with a length of the field try from Shane Toal on the hooter.

The Dons return to the Keepmoat Stadium on Sunday March 8 to take on West Wales Raiders in Betfred League One. You can purchase tickets now from tickets.clubdoncaster.co.uk.