Headingley club on a mission to atone says Holmes

Just two weeks ago, the Headingley club arrived at Doncaster having seemingly turned their season around with a first win on home soil the previous week against Moseley.

But they failed to match the intensity of their hosts as the Knights tore into their opponents and eventually racked up a first win in 10 league games.

An inability to motivate themselves for the challenge was cited as the primary reason for Carnegie’s insipid performance, and one they are pledging not to repeat at Clifton Lane today.

“We’re still driven by the need to put that right,” said Holmes, who scored a hat-trick of tries last week against Nottingham, in what eight days after their Castle Park catastrophe was their best performance of the season.

“As improved as we were last week, that result and performance at Doncaster is still playing on our minds.

“We lacked enthusiasm that day. As professional players we should be able to motivate ourselves for a game but for some reason or other, the atmosphere was not right that day.

“We’ve looked at as much detail as we can this week and there’s been a lot of emphasis on learning that lesson from Doncaster.”

On a personal level, Holmes was delighted to get on the scoreboard three times as Carnegie swept aside Nottingham to keep their play-off hopes alive.

With little margin for error in the remaining seven games, the 20-year-old knows Tommy McGee’s side can ill-afford the inconsistency that has plagued their season.

“It’s hard to put a finger on why that’s been but we can’t use excuses like the coaching changes,” he added.

“We have to take responsibility ourselves.”

Holmes is joined on the wing by the fit-again David Doherty, while Josh Bainbridge and Jack Walker start after playing for the England Under-20s.

Rotherham welcome centre Chris Harris from his dual-registration with Newcastle.