Doncaster enjoyed a fifth straight home win against a plucky Sedgley Park in front of Castle Park’s biggest crowd of the season on a bitterly cold day interspersed with snow showers. The visitors made life difficult early on by slowing Doncaster ball at every opportunity and conceded penalties at will before referee Chris Sharp sent Richard Senior and Jim Ponton to the sin bin, after which Doncaster were able to put some pace on the game. The sight of Senior Jnr being met on the touchline by Fourth Official Senior Snr and put on a naughty boy’s chair caused great amusement not enjoyed by the junior partner! Rob Liley had taken three penalty opportunities before Phil Jones got one back, which sparked the home side into a period of forceful play that was capped by a great try by Jon Boden. Liley fed Nick Wakley on a nice reverse angle and he burst clear to draw the full back and deliver the perfect scoring pass and Liley’s extras were a formality. But just when it looked that Doncaster would cut loose, a series of errors culminating in Liley’s gift of an interception pass to Shaun Woof who scored unopposed at the posts for Jones to convert saw the home side frustratingly only 16-10 ahead at the break.
The gap was narrowed by three more when Boden was penalised for holding on at a tackle in the opening minutes of the second half but before home nerves could be tested, back they came and a series of attacks and offside advantages finally saw the penalty try awarded as the whole Sedgley back line came offside as one (to escape another sin bin) and Liley’s extras removed any threat of a surprise result. Dominant as Doncaster were, though, excellent Sedgley defence kept them out until another beauty of a try with ten minutes to go lit up the cold afternoon. Fast line out ball inside their own half saw Liley feed replacement centre John Cannon whose powerful burst up the middle created the opportunity and when Wakley arrived at speed outside him, the scoring pass was perfect and Liley was left with the simplest of conversions. With the game won, and the bonus point tantalisingly close, Van Vuuren’s frozen hands dropped a pass that would have put him clear; and in a comedy of errors in the final move of the game, two home knock ons went straight to Sedgley players and Tom Albinson was almost embarrassed to stroll through to register a consolation try for the visitors with the final move of the game. Another home win and another when a bonus point should have been secured.
Next up is the trickiest of away games on 2nd January in Cornwall. Anything out of that trip would indeed be a bonus. Next home game is on 14th January when Bedford come to Castle Park.
Doncaster: J Boden, M Wood, J vd Berg (J Cannon 52), N Wakley (L Lane 75), D Van Vuuren, R Liley, C Harrison, R List (S Barretto 63), S Boden (J Roddam 70), N Tau (S Bunting 76), G Kenworthy, D Cook (O Cook 76), R Earnshaw, S Grainger (R Peacey 76), D Montagu.
Sedgley Park: C Wilkinson, M Peters, S Woof, I Voortman (A DeJager 70), R Hopkinson, P Jones, D McCormack (T Albinson 70), G Evans (P Gazzola 65), R Oxley (P Keys 70), H Thomas (P DuPlessis 70), C Rowe (S Anania 59), E Lund, R Senior J Skurr 59), J Ponton, T Fourie.
Referee: C Sharp (RFU) |
