Doncaster RLFC v Oxford RLFC
Referee: B Pearson
Touch Judges: Arron Gill Brad Darlinson
Reserve Referee: D. Martin
M Com: J Holdsworth [see edit below

Referee: Billy Pearson (Wakefield)
Previous Oxford games:
19/06/2016 - Oxford 6 York 50 (penalties 6-8 against)
20/05/2017 - South Wales 18 Oxford 38 (penalties 8-12 against)
18/06/2017 - Oxford 0 Newcastle 52 (penalties 7-7)
Becoming a regular visitor after making his League 1 refereeing debut in that game against York last season. He races sidecars, as the passenger, and may also have an interest in whippet racing. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video of him from earlier this year in charge of a Hull FC reserve game:
[urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfBX2wMx5ro[/url



Touch Judge: Arron Gill (Huddersfield)
Fourth time we’ve seen him this season, the last one being the trip to All Golds only 10 days ago. Was a touch judge in last year’s BARLA cup final.


Touch Judge: Brad Darlison (Castleford and Featherstone)
Fourth Oxford game this season, the last one being the home win over York this season. As previously mentioned, the RFL and he seem to disagree over what his surname actually is - I’ve gone with the more reliable source. And I really can’t work out what’s going on in this picture - it looks like one player is about to strip the ball from his team-mate. At least the touch judge is there to make the call:


Reserve Referee: Dougie Martin (Castleford & Featherstone)
First known Oxford game. As we’re going for videos this week, here he is explaining why he took up refereeing:
[urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvoGtU6-bXg[/url

And after starting in 2014, here he gets a “most improved referee of the year” award in 2015:


Match Commissioner: John Holdsworth (Kippax)

[Edit - since I published the text below, the RFL have updated their officials' appointments. Our game no longer shows a match commissioner, whilst Holdsworth is down for Wakefield v Castleford the following evening. Whilst he could certainly do 2 games in 2 days, I suspect they're ringing around for a replacement at this very minute.

First known Oxford game. Possibly the biggest name ever to feature in this series. Even has his own Wikipedia page. A former referee from 20 or 30 years ago, generally getting top games. Refereed the 1987 and 1990 Challenge Cup finals, as well as the first ever World Club Challenge (which you may recall was a bloodbath). Here’s an example of the calm style he adopted and will no doubt be hoping to pass on to the likes of Billy Pearson:
[urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvX6lybLyZ8[/url

This is a more recent photo:



And here's a preview from the Doncaster paper, where they claim that the cat ate their homework:
[urlhttp://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/doncaster-rlfc-richard-horne-to-make-changes-and-simplify-things-for-midweek-oxford-clash-1-8628955[/url

New Dons head coach Richard Horne is hoping that it will be a case of third time lucky following back-to-back defeats in tomorrow’s rearranged League One clash against Oxford at Featherstone (7.30pm). “Sunday’s defeat against Newcastle was frustrating in that things we talked about such as contact in the (arm) wrestle, which we did really well against Whitehaven, we weren’t quite on it at the weekend,” said Horne. “I don’t know if I’m throwing too much at the players with the things in the team that I want to change. If so I’ll probably simplify it a little bit and make sure that we lay the right platform in the middle before we look to move it to the edges.

“I think we looked to move the ball wide on the back foot at times against Newcastle and that’s something we’ll discuss at training tonight and look to fix it up against Oxford.” He added: “Having dropped to seventh due to the Newcastle defeat we’ve made it hard for ourselves to claim the fourth spot we were targeting, and tomorrow’s game is obviously a must-win game for us, as are the remaining two in the regular season. It’s not ideal having to play homes game at the athletics stadium or at Featherstone but fortunately we’ll soon be back playing at the Keepmoat Stadium in the Super 8s. I’ll be making changes with us having three games in eight days and hopefully the players we bring in will give us some energy and we’ll see how we go.

“I don’t know a great deal about Oxford and the main focus will be on us. People are saying it’s a game that we should win but again it’s all about having the right attitude and applying ourselves.”