Doncaster Knights 68 Waterloo 15
Ten Try rout confirms third place finish for Knights
The Knights enjoyed their afternoon in the sun, eventually, but Waterloo looked far from being the relegated bottom club for the first 25 minutes during which they gave as good as they got. Playing with no pressures on them, they contested well and even forced the Knights to play a man short for ten minutes when Luke Gross was yellow carded for throwing a punch – it was the correct decision but the fact that his spheroids were being squeezed hard at the time by Jon Nugent surely warranted intervention by the referee as well. With the numbers imbalance, and the ball being played wide, it was little surprise when the Knights conceded a now customary first try to their visitors, winger Dan Loader being the beneficiary of a cleverly worked overlap to get into the right corner after 13 minutes. The lead lasted only four minutes, though, as lovely quick ball off the top of a line out saw Cerith Rees step left before slipping a nice reverse ball to Paul Bailey whose fast angled run in off his wing saw him clear to the posts. Waterloo were still giving as much as they got in a closely contested period of the match, but it was an error by full back Steve Nutt that was to turn the game the Knights’ way. A poor Rees downfield kick went straight to Nutt, who ran upfield: he chose to then chip the ball over the advancing Knights line only to see John Cannon leap in the air, catch the ball and set off to make the left hand corner. Rees failed with the conversion, but it was to be the only one of ten conversions he would miss all afternoon. With signs of the Waterloo effort starting to wilt, the Knights turned the screw as the interval approached and Jason Forster rediscovered his try scoring art with a couple of fine tries to make it 25 for the season. First, from a Waterloo 22 metre drop out, hit hard along the floor, Bryn Griffiths cleverly caught the ball, heard Forster’s call and deftly slipped a pass to the flanker who burst through the middle from 25 metres to score. Then Rees, taking flat ball from a line out tried to move right, came back left into traffic but somehow danced his way through several attempted tackles; and when his way was finally blocked, Forster was on his hand to take the offload and crash over the line with several visitors clinging desperately on him. Between those scores, an obstruction at the restart after the first had given Alex Monro a simple penalty for Waterloo; and as the break approached Simon Bunting was the second to be shown yellow when he was caught stamping at a ruck so he was able to enjoy an extended interval. Half time at 26-8, the bonus point already in the bag, the expectation was of a Knights rampage to come.
Forster at this point made way for Simon Grainger – indeed all the bench appeared during the half – and the onslaught began. Ben Jones, having a fine match once again, made a big break: Netani Talei was in support but with a free Bailey outside him tried to go alone and was hauled down just short. The try wasn’t long in coming, though. An attacking scrum saw Jones drift across the face of the defence before slipping an inside pass to Talei who powered over. From the restart, Gross caught athletically but was some how stripped of the ball in the ensuing maul and nobody was more surprised than Monro to find himself being given the ball with no defender between him and the Knights’ line as he strolled, almost apologetically, over for the softest of tries, which he added to himself. Any thoughts of a Waterloo revival were promptly set aside as Talei again led the charge to set up Cannon and Bailey on the right, but a forward pass stopped another try. The bailey was just denied on the right: replacement Dan Storey was held inches short under the posts; but Bryn Griffiths had the strength to finish off the series of pick and drives that followed to score try number six. Storey, Talei and Bailey then combined well on a blind side raid only for Bailey to be judged to be held up in goal as desperate Waterloo defence was employed on an almost continuous basis. Being overpowered in the scrums, rocked back at the breakdown, and scrambling in defence, their fitness was being drained. The Knights clinically took advantage as they stretched the game at pace and ran in four more tries in a closing 15 minutes that had the crowd purring with delight. It’s a very simple game when everything comes together at once, as it did. A fast backs move saw Bailey in off his wing to break the defensive line, and set up Talei for his second. Rees then started and finished a beautiful flowing move over 70 metres for arguably the try of the day. Wes Davies streaked up the left wing, cut infield and threw a lovely long pass to Bailey who hared away for his second try. And to complete proceedings, Grainger set up Cannon who shot up the left, drew the last defender and gave Wes Davies the chance to show his pace and finishing skills as the tenth try was racked up.
It was the Knights biggest win of the season and only Leeds have beaten Waterloo by more. There had been something of an end of term feel to the afternoon, and waterloo had played their part in an entertaining match. The Knights cannot now be caught for third place and will look forward to the last match of the season next Saturday (3.00pm) against a Bedford side whom they have never yet got the better of and who sneaked a late, late 9-6 home win at Goldington Road in awful weather back in January, a result that was to see the momentum of November and December lost. It should be a cracker!
Knights: Carter, Bailey, Cannon, Davey (Woodrow 63), W Davies, Rees, Jones (Storey 48), Bunting, Phillips (Boden 57), Tau (T Davies 53), Griffiths (Kenworthy 57), Gross, Earnshaw (O Cook 60), Forster (Grainger 40), Talei.
Waterloo: Nutt (Kerfoot 57), Loader, Murchie, Payne, Van DeVenter, Munro, Erskine (Broxon 72), O’Keefe, Ince (Jones 72), O’Donnell (Hopgood 72), Brandling, Nugent, Smith, Hall (Palmer 50), McKay (Planchant 18).
Referee: JP Doyle (RFU) |
