Doncaster RLFC v Sheffield Eagles: Dons in confident mood ahead of derby - Burns

Burns had to wait until the Betfred Challenge Cup game against fellow Championship outfit Widnes Vikings when Joe Lovodua and Watson Boas, who had filled the No 9 spot between them in the first two games of the season were both moved to different positions to cover for injured players, to make his seasonal debut.

Forced to play the full game, Burns’ performance was one of the highlights of a disappointing defeat against the seven-times Challenge Cup winners.

He also put in a solid shift in the big win over York Knights in the club’s opening Championship game a fortnight ago when sharing the hooking duties with PNG international Watson Boas.

“I hope to be playing against some of my old mates but there is a lot of competition at hooker this season with Joe and Watson so I’ll just have to wait and see,” he told the Free Press.

“Whoever plays we know it’s going to be a very hard game because they’ve made a great start to the season and they’ve shown they are a very good side. They just shaded it the last time we played them but I think we are a better side now the new players have had time to fit in.”

Burns says the size of the defeat at Widnes was not a true reflection of the game over 80 minutes nor was it an indication of how the Dons might fare in the Championship and insists that confidence in the camp is high.

“You always want to try and put things right the following week when you lose by that sort of score but we had to wait another six weeks as a result of being knocked out of both the 1895 Cup and the Challenge Cup,” he said.

“However, we made good use of the time to work on things where we felt we needed to improve in what was like a mini pre-season for us and obviously it worked in our opening league game against York.

“We’d trained really hard and the sessions had been quite intense and we knew if we played to our potential we’d be in with a chance and so it proved.

“It was a great start to our league campaign but we’re not getting carried away and we know we have to play at that level every week, starting with the game against Eagles, because, unlike last season, there are no easy games in the Championship.”