Doncaster Rugby Club

Moseley 11 Doncaster Knights 18

It was yet another away win that keeps the Knights in second spot, but…………………. Most sides have off days. The better sides still manage a win. That’s what happened on a dull, still afternoon in the Midlands.

Spencer Davey was a late withdrawal, having tweaked a hamstring, so Tom Luke started at inside centre, his preferred position. He couldn’t have had a worse start! A long diagonal kick into the Knights’ ‘22 bounced unpredicably into the arms of Dan Norton to the surprise of the covering Luke, and although he caught his man, the inside offload gave Jack Adams the simplest of tries with just a minute on the clock. It looked like it was going to be one of those days, and it turned out to be so. Although the Knights pack immediately took the game to Moseley, it needed almost five minutes of intense pressure to finally force Glen Wilson over for a score which Mark Woodrow converted. 

 But much as the Knights tried to impose their obviously greater firepower on their hosts, the error count got higher and higher and opportunities wasted. Despite having most of the teritory in the half, all they could manage was a couple of Woodrow penalties in half an hour’s play (one of which looked decidedly wide of the upright) before, almost out of nowhere, a wonderful try was scored. Luke broke strongly up the middle before slinging a long pass towards Justin Bishop on the right: the winger was caught but the ball recycled quickly left where Bishop somehow appeared on the opposite wing to slip a lovely inside ball to Brad Hunt at pace at a lovely angle to slice through the defence to score with just a couple of minutes to the break. It lifted spirits and twice they could have scored again. Woodrow’s chip and chase almost saw him in; and Donavan Van Vuuren had a chance, only to spill a short pass as he burst through in the home ’22. We had stopped counting the errors at this point but at 5-18 behind the home support was expecting the Knights to regroup, start over and draw clear after the interval.

For one moment it did look likely as a flowing move at pace saw Van Vuuren, Ngalu Tau and Hunt link to get behind the defence, only for Bryn Griffiths this time to knock on with the try looming. It was indeed going to be one of those days! From that point the Knights never looked like scoring again, and they didn’t. Replacement fly half Matt Jones pulled back three points when the Knights panicked and were penalised under their own posts after messing up their own scrum ball. Woodrow got caught trying to run from defence, conceded the penalty but Jones miss kicked badly to let him off the hook. Ben Jones’ mazy run into the home ’22 ended with another spilled ball. Luke had an interception chance but knocked it on. Richard List came on at prop and was repeatedly penalised: Matt Jones took three points from one such opportunity to pull Moseley within seven points and they threw everything at the Knights sniffing an upset. The one thing that was working, though, was the Knights’ defence which never looked like being breached but it was a less than comfortable last ten minutes under an almost self imposhed cosh. Moseley, with their Gloucester contingent, were a lively outfit up for the occasion, but they won’t see the Knights play this poorly again!

Lynn Howells wouldn’t be drawn after the game – “we won”, he said. That was all that mattered. He will relect, though, on how two successive games saw the Knights two tries ahead at the break and seemingly set to go on for a bonus point win, only to draw blank in the second half. They will need to do much better next Saturday when the Cornish Pirates invade Castle Park (2.30pm)

View podcasts of Tom Luke and Dan Storey after the match on the link from the website front page.

Moseley: Williams M (Bressington 40), Winter, Adams, Cox, Norton, Macdonald (Jones M 40), Ireland, Williams N (Forster 45), McMillan (Lea 73), Sigley (Williams N 72), Atkinson, Stott, Evans, Bignell (Uzuigwe 55), Balding (Lightowler 55).

Doncaster: Davies W, Bishop, Hunt (Carter 74), Luke, Van Vuuren, Woodrow, Jones, Davies T (List 66), Boden, Tau (Rawson 45), Griffiths, Kenworthy, Gray, Grainger, Wilson (Planchant 73).

Referee: JP Doyle (RFU)