Doncaster's Brett Davey

Doncaster Knights return their focus to the RFU Championship Champaign as Exeter Chiefs visit Castle Park this Saturday for a 2pm Kick off.

Rarely is a game between the Knights and the Chiefs anything less than a barnstormer. Last season only the ticking of the clock seemed to prevent Lynn Howells achieving a first ever win over the Chiefs at Castle Park, while the away fixture ended in a 9 points all draw in a kicking duel between Jamie Lennard and Tony Yapp. Exeter Chiefs now hold the mantle of the Only side in the RFU Championship that Lynn Howells is yet to record a win over, and with Exeter sitting atop the Championship pile with an outstanding run of form Doncaster are once again placed in the position of underdogs.

One thing the Knights have proven over the past few seasons is that big games at Castle Park bring out big performances, with Leeds Carnegie and Bristol over the past two seasons coming unstuck at Castle Park despite being odds on favourites to come away with the points. Once again the Knights go into a battle that the form guide would suggest is a now win situation for them, and in those situations the Doncaster side are known to shine the brightest.

Exeter hold the mantle of the RFU Championship’s top try scorers with 43 tries scored compared with the Knights 20. In their fly half, Gareth Steenson, the Chiefs have the Championship’s leading points scorer and Richard Baxter (flanker) and Matt Jess (wing) are both the Championship’s equal 3rd top try scorers. Further tough news for Doncaster is that nearly 2/3rds of these tries have been scored away from Sandy Park, on the road Exeter Chiefs are known to attack mercilessly.

So where do Doncaster compete against Exeter this weekend? Everyone knows that the Knights can defend, especially at home in front of their home support. With form turning in their favour and the return from injury of influential players such as Anthony Carter and Chris Planchant the Knights have a combative edge to match the defensive strength.

In short the game could provide the fabled answer to the “irresistible force meets immovable object” paradox , the arrow of the Chief facing the shield of the Knight potentially answering the philosophical question posed in the 3rd Century BC by Han Feizi. In the story, a man was trying to sell a spear and a shield. When asked how good his spear was, he said that his spear could pierce any shield. Then, when asked how good his shield was, he said that it could defend from all spear attacks. Then one person asked him, “what would happen if he were to take his spear to strike his shield?”, the seller obviously could not answer.

Exeter have already announced the Arrows :

Forwards: Simon Alcott, Richie Baxter, Chris Bentley, Chris Budgen, Neil Clark, James Hanks, Tom Hayes, Tom Johnson, Ben Moon, James Scaysbrook, Chad Slade & Brett Sturgess.

Backs: Matt Cornwell, Phil Dollman, Mark Foster, Danny Gray, Matt Jess, Emyr Lewis, Paul McKenzie, Gareth Steenson, Clive Stuart-Smith & Haydn Thomas.

We await Doncaster announcing the Shields.