Doncaster Spirit Prevails
After ten minutes of this match, the Doncaster faithful were looking at being on the wrong end of a cricket score as Coventry’s pack overpowered them in line out, scrum and maul; and the Coventry backs sliced through the home defence with pace and sleight of hand. Things had started to go wrong just before kick off when Steve Barretto injured a knee in the warm up and frantic paperwork changes were required to start Richard List in his place – not the best preparation. The opening minutes had summed up the season to date as Pieter Muller’s men struggled to come to terms with life at this level, then gradually settled into their game.
The opening was one way traffic. Doncaster’s first four line outs were lost, presenting the visitors with possession they used effectively and in the third minute opened the scoring with apparent ease as they attacked up the left, recycled ball at the breakdown before rapid hands sent centre Donovan Sanders over for a try that James Moore converted for an early lead. Doncaster did have an early chance of their own as Charlie Harrison’s long kick invited Luke Nabaro’s chase but the bounce of the ball was unkind and Coventry cleared. By now though, the Coventry maul was in top gear and making big yardage with worrying ease, and culminating in a try by Hendry Rheeders. Twelve points ahead in fewer minutes and looking so easy for the visitors. Led in impressive style by Russell Earnshaw though, Doncaster visibly regrouped. A promising attack led by Duncan Murray powering through tackles up the centre ended as he was stripped of the ball, but this lost opportunity spurred them on and next it was Nabaro at pace up the right and a Harrison kick into touch in the Coventry ’22. Although Cov won the line with ease, Simon Grainger was up like a shot to charge down Higgin’s clearing kick and then managed to follow it up to touch down wide on the right side. Jon Benson just failed with the conversion but spirits were lifted. A continuing problem through the game would be failing to find touch from penalty kicks, always putting pressure back on themselves as the Cov backs looked capable of scoring every time they had ball in space; and one such miss on 25 minutes cost another seven points as Sanders made the initial thrust, Rheeders and Higgins took the ball on a Moore finished the move off to score an excellently executed try that he converted himself for a 5-10 lead. Anyone who doubted the Doncaster resolve was immediately silenced, though, as the riposte was almost immediate! From the restart, Donavan Van Vuuren ran the ball out of defence on the left: quick second phase ball was transferred right through several hands to set up Nabaro on the right wing. He showed what a class finisher he is by stepping the defender, rounding him and sprinting into the corner for a wonderful try. Benson added the extras and it was then certainly game on! Increasingly Doncaster managed sustained periods of possession and pressure, and for the first time we saw signs of panic and indiscipline in the Coventry defence. In the last six minutes of the half they conceded three successive penalties which Benson converted, and at the last lock Ben Gulliver was sin binned for repetitive team offences by referee Alan Biggs whose calm control of the encounter added much to the occasion. Doncaster went in 21-19 ahead with the Castle Park crowd cheering on its feet.
They had hardly settled down for the restart when Doncaster had scored again! Dan Montagu carried strongly to commit more defenders that Coventry would have wanted, and when the ball was recycled left with pace the defence was stretched. Richard List appeared in the line to release Van Vuuren whose strong run was stopped inches short of the line, but he was able to offload to the supporting List who was gifted the simplest of tries as reward for his presence. Again Benson stroked the conversion over for a nine point lead and thoughts of a first win were becoming more realistic. Not everything was going well, though – the line out was malfunctioning too often, and kicks continued to miss touch. These possession gifts allowed Coventry back into the game; and when Harrison was caught in possession and failed to release, Moore reduced arrears with a penalty in the 53rd minute. Next Van Vuuren gave List an awful (and unnecessary) pass on the home ’22 which was inevitably knocked on and there was Sanders to take advantage and almost score, only Van Vuuren’s redeeming tackle stooping him; but the offload found prop Kisi Pulu in support to crash over under the posts. Moore’s simple conversion gave Coventry the lead once again and it really was anybody’s game to win. A high tackle on the hour on Benson gave him a long distance penalty chance, which drifted left of the posts; and in the cut and thrust of a thrilling last quarter both sides showed their pace and skills and both had chances. The match was decided in the last five minutes when Coventry’s Nial Treston high tackled Murray (and was rightly sin binned) on the ten metre line in centre field. Benson, now carrying a sore leg, decided he should pass the kicking role to John Boden instead.” No pressure, just kick this long one and win the game” seemed to be the message and Boden duly obliged to ease Doncaster 31-29 in front to the rapturous delight of the good crowd. Mr. Biggs played over seven minutes of stoppage time and in that period Coventry threw everything at Doncaster, including one drop goal effort that flew well wide, but the defence held out with no real scares and the first win of the season was in the bag and Doncaster were off the bottom of the table.
The win will do wonders for the confidence of the side, and the excellent team spirit will only be enhanced. Whether they will give the mighty Quins a decent run for their considerable money at The Stoop next week remains to be seen; but new signing John Cannon, the 28 cap Canadian centre who watched the match and spoke to the pre match lunch, will be looking forward to joining this team.
Doncaster: Boden J, Van Vuuren, Hunt, Murray, Nabaro, Benson, Harrison (Lane 60), List, Roddam (Boden S 60), Tau, Norris (Rule 48), Cook D, Earnshaw, Grainger, Montagu (Cook O 65).
Coventry: Davis, Johnson (Richard 52), Witkowski, Sanders, Moore, Higgins, Walls, Pulu, Protherough, Bucknell (Treston 70), Gulliver, Clapham (Campton 66), Venter (Pale 77), Johnson, Rheeders.
Referee: Alan Biggs (RFU) |
