League - weakly.
Doncaster exploit Hornets' softy softy approach.
This game was a real test of the patience and durability of Hornets' loyal fans. Contested by two teams who seemed determined to bore the opposition into submission, this flaccid, shapeless mess turned on three moments of limp tackling that would have shamed an under-14s side.

But Hornets started the brighter. Trying to play football round Doncaster's reliance on physical presence, they opened the account after just ten minutes: Mat Firth and Phil Hasty exchanging passes for Matt Sturm to crash through. Kev King converted and Hornets declared for the half.

The Lakers' lynchpin Graham Holroyd seized the opportunity and unleashed his repertoire of searching passes and punishing kicks. Firstly Dons' hooker Green snuck through a napping defence after Holroyd had gained good field position (20 minutes).

Then came the first defensive abberation: On the half hour, Holroyd took a pass in centre field that left him with zero options. Instead of closing him down, Hornets defence backed off and Holroyd found himself with 50 metres of open field to work with. His raking diagonal run left the Hornets defence chasing shadows and his looping pass to Epati gave the Lakers' centre a shoo-in. Holroyd banged over the extras for good measure.

Hornets only reply a Kev King penalty kicked into a deficit. Hornets 12-8 down at half time.

Doncaster started the second half with a bang. Within minutes a sweeping break through the heart of the Hornets defence saw Chris Giles pull off a try-saving tackle on Weeden.

Then came the second weak tackling moment. Doncaster had pressed the Hornets line with no luck. On the last tackle, hooker Green was fed harmlessly into three tacklers - each of whom thought it was someone else's responsibility to put him on his arse. As it was some quite awful shirt tugging proved insufficient to prevent Green wriggling clear to touch down for a very soft try. Holroyd kicked the extras from the touchline.

Hornets did rallly briefly. On 55 minutes Phil Hasty's sopiralling kick was coughed by Royston and Hornets put on a superb scrum move for Richard Varkulis to skate through untouched. King converted. Three minutes later a cute show and go by Dave McConnell left the Doncaster defence bamboozled. With defenders happily clattering dummy runner Matt Sturm, Ryan Benjefield backed up the break and McConnell's pass sent him under the black dot. King again converted and - from nowhere - Hornets hit the front at 22-18.

It was a lead that lasted 4 minutes. Forced into defending 3 consecutive sets on their own line Hornets succumbed to a sucker try as Holroyd found Weedon arriving at speed to score.

Then, on 70 minutes, came the third in Hornets' unholy triumverate of tripe tackling. Lakers' fullback Royston arrived in the line more in hope than expectation; Hornets defence sat back and a cursory clutch at a passing collar was hardly enough to halt his run. Not one Hornets defender laid a meaningful hand on him. Poor, really. Holroyd banged over the two.

With the clock runing down Hornets decided to play some football. On 76 minutes Andy Gorski blasted through a tiring defence; his pass sending Sam Butterworth in by the posts. King converted. 30-28 - Hornets left with four minutes to salvage something from the game.

From the kick off Hornets launched a break up the right flank: Varkulis crashing the ball round the outside of the defence to gain valuable metres. With the Dons' defence backpedalling, John Pickersgill hit the line with Varkulis in close attendance, but the big prop forced the pass with the tackle almost complete. The chance was gone and Varkulis' frustration was evident.

With less than minute on the clock, Hornets had one last push. Andy Gorski again driving the ball through the vistors' defence, but his speculatory pass fell on fallow ground as the support failed to arrive in time.

And that was that. Hornets' coach Darren Abram wasn't a happy chap: "I'm really disappointed at the minute," he said. "We have come up with too many errors."

Indeed, it was a game littered with the cock-ups that give coaches nightmares. The crap tackling nowtwithstanding, Hornets' application in key areas was woeful at times. Forcing passes in traffic when it would have been signinficantly more sensible to take the tackle gave Doncaster easy possession. The marker defence was painful to watch for most of the afternoon; slow out of the tackle, rarely in-line, markers turning their backs - Doncaster repeatedly hammered Hornets through the rucks.

But is was a long-standing problem that came back to bite Hornets again. And again. Week after week we see Hornets defend stoically, then simply switch off on the last tackle thinking the job's been done. Even the most basically drilled side seem able to work last tackle openings and it's becoming a point of concern.

Ultimately, you know what you're going to get with Doncaster: rudimentary collision-based football that sucks you into a battle of attrition where they beat you with experience. And Hornets fell for their gamemplan hook line and stinker.