Rams play-off hopes rest on crucial Doncaster clash

The Rams picked up a bonus point from a 30-18 defeat to Sheffield Eagles last Sunday and lie seventh in the table with two games remaining.

Doncaster are a place and two points above the Rams and also have a game in hand, while Dewsbury’s other play-off rivals are Workington Town and Whitehaven.

With a full round of Championship matches being played on Thursday, due to next weekend’s Challenge Cup final at Wembley, Morrison knows the importance of the Doncaster clash.

He said: “Thursday night will be massive against Doncaster, who have six wins and a draw in their last seven games and are obviously the form team.

“It’s probably better that they did have a win, not a loss (on Sunday), as they would have probably come wanting to rectify that.

“The season is on the line on Thursday. If we win we can make it into the play-offs but if we lose we’re out, so it should be a good game.

“We’ve been playing play-off footy for the last few weeks to keep ourselves in and I thought to get the bonus point kept our season alive, so Thursday night is all or nothing.

“We haven’t been able to do anything in training for the last two weeks because we have been scared of losing more players. I’m just hoping some of the boys who played (against Sheffield) have pulled through and will be able to front up again with the short turn around.

“I thought we deserved the bonus point. We played really well and the intensity was there. We hunted as a pack and competed with them for the full 80 minutes.

“Four of the players shouldn’t have played due to injury but they put themselves forward and played for us busted.

“We had two centres in the back row against the top team in the competition and I thought we were outstanding, I was very proud of them.”

Attention now switches to Thursday when Dewsbury will be hoping to keep their play-off hopes alive, while the Rams travel to Leigh Centurions in their final league game on September 1.