For their second game in two weeks against the Saints, Doncaster’s Director of Rugby Lynn Howells made only one change recalling James Jones, cuptied for last weeks EDF game, in place of Ollie Cook at flanker. The Saints recalled the league’s leading try scorer Chris Ashton, who had served a week’s ban, and Dylan Hartley who had been playing for England Saxons.
The Knights kicked off on a beautiful sunny day on a perfect playing arena and in front of a packed east terrace. The first couple of minutes were fairly even but then lock Matt Lord won a line out for the Saints just inside the Knight’s half, and a lovely lobbed pass by centre John Clarke put skipper Bruce Reihana into space and he drew Doncaster’s fullback Anthony Carter before giving the scoring pass to Ashton for a try that Reihana himself converted. Doncaster fought back but conceded a second try after 10 minutes. Doncaster ran the ball from a scrum but it was unfortunately dropped by a surprise Bryn Griffiths and pounced on by an alert Clarke who flung out a long pass to the right to Ashton who raced over for a try that Reihana again converted. In spite of this set back the Knights continued to play rugby and almost scored when centre Brad Hunt, after making a nice break, failed to move the ball quickly to his winger Paul Bailey and a good chance was lost. The game swung from end to end with Clarke almost scored twice for the Saints but still Doncaster remained positive and doing their fair share of attacking. However, with 31 minutes gone, a wonderful break by Carlos Spencer ended with the Knights being penalised for offside at a ruck in front of their posts to give Reihana a simple penalty chance which he took. With half-time approaching the Knights desperately needed to keep the Saints from scoring but this was not to be. After winning a ruck 40 metres out, the Saints put themselves under pressure with a poor pass but Clarke was on hand to make a break before feeding the ball to Reihana whose delicate grubber kick to the corner allowed Ashton to gather the ball and race over for his hat-trick try. The Knights came straight back and they were awarded two penalties, the second of which resulted in Hartley being yellow carded for deliberately killing the ball. The ball was kicked to touch and from the resultant lineout Knight’s prop Richard List crashed over for his side’s opening try with the usually reliable Mark Woodrow missing a relatively easy conversion chance.
Turning around 24 points to 5 down, the Knights needed to score first whilst the Saints were still a man short and this they did after only 2 minutes. Firstly Bailey beat his opposite number along the right touchline with a good 35 metre run and, when he was tackled on the Saints 22, the ball was quickly recycled to the left where winger Justin Bishop raced over unopposed for his side’s second try in three minutes. Woodrow again missed a relatively simple conversion chance. However, the Knight’s joy was short lived and it was that man Ashton again who scored his fourth try following a smart scissors with Reihana following a good blindside attack from 40 metres out. Reihana converted Ashton’s try – his 29th of the season and a National League One record. Doncaster came back and, although Griffiths was stopped just short, they continued to throw everything into the attack. However they were to be denied by the strong Saint’s defence and they went further behind following a good run up the middle of the field by Ashton. The Saints recycled the ball and Carlos Spencer’s perfect cross kick was gathered by lock Alex Rae and he fed fellow lock Matt Lord for a try but Reihana failed to goal with his first miss of the day. Although that was the end of the scoring both sides spent the last 20 minutes taking every opportunity to attack as the Saints looked for more tries and the Knights the two that would have given them a bonus point. When the final whistle went both sides received an excellent ovation from the good humoured crowd who had been treated to some exciting rugby by both sides.
After the match Lynn Howells said that, although he was obviously disappointed to lose, he was pleased with the way that his relatively young side had stuck to their task and had tried to play rugby throughout. He praised the Saints for their performance saying that they gave the Knight’s players clear evidence of the standard they had to aspire to next season and, in particular, the need to take every scoring opportunity that came their way.
Doncaster Knights – A. Carter; P. Bailey, B. Hunt; S Davey: J Bishop; M Woodrow, B Jones (D Storey 75mins); R List (T Toke 63), S Boden (Phillips 69mins), N Ta’u (T Davies 47mins Ta’u 63), L Gross (L Fa’aoso 56mins), G Kenworthy, B Griffiths, J Jones, C Planchant - subs not used T Luke, W Davies
Northampton Saints – B Reihana; C Ashton, J Clarke, J Downey (N Starling 63mins), P Diggin; C Spencer (S Myler 64mins), J Howard (M Robinson 71mins); T Smith (S Tonga’uiha 56mins), D Hartley, B Stewart (P Shields 63mins), M Lord, A Rae (C Short 66mins), M Easter, D Fox, M Hopley (Shields 41-52mins (P Tupai 66mins)). |
