Doncaster Rugby Club

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Includes Donovan Van Vuuren's first interview.

Doncaster’s Director of Rugby Lynn Howells made a number of changes for his side’s visit to second from bottom Birmingham side Pertemp Bees with starts for Wez Davies at fullback, Donavan Van Vuuren on the wing, Cerith Rees at flyhalf, Ben Phillips at hooker and his two Tongan internationals Toma Toke and Lisiate Fa’aoso at prop and lock respectively. To make way for them Anthony Carter and Justin Bishop were rested whilst Mark Woodrow, Steve Boden, Richard List and Bryn Griffiths moved to the bench. For Pertemp Bees, former Doncaster flanker Russell Earnshaw, now their Head Coach, played at flanker against his old side.

Doncaster’s start was electric with a try within 21 secs, the fastest ever by the club and probably in the league. From a poor Bees kick off Knight’s hooker Ben Phillips gathered the ball, burst through several tackles and swerved around the home side’s scrum half before racing up to the opposition 22. When confronted by the Bees’s full back, Phillips put a simple pass to flanker Tom Luke, supporting on his right, who raced over unopposed for a classic try which Rees converted. Doncaster came straight back on the attack and Rees missed a relatively simple penalty from 35 metres out and 15 metres to the left of the posts. After being let off by this miss, even worse was to befall Bees 6 minutes later, when a poor pass along their backs on the halfway line was scooped up one handed at pace by Van Vuuren who ran 50 metres to score a simple try for the Knights. Rees conversion attempt from 10 metres to the left of the posts missed. To their credit Bees’s pack came more into the game with their front row putting the Knights under pressure and their backrow starting to get on top of the Knights three in the loose. After 20 minutes, Bees fly half Jon Higgins, who up to them had been having a poor game, cut through a non-existent Doncaster defence just inside his own half before passing to the supporting England Seven’s flanker Will Matthews who outpaced the cover to score just to the left of the posts for a try that Higgins converted. With 30 minutes gone, Bees were awarded a line out 5 metres out and, after a succession of driving mauls, Matthews again got himself on the scoresheet as he was driven over by his pack. Higgins’ conversion put his side into a 14 to 12which they held until halftime.

Within the first 5 minutes of the second half Higgins and then Rees kicked penalties for their respective sides but Doncaster suffered a major blow shortly afterwards when prop Ngalu Ta’u was yellow carded to leave the Knights a man short. Bees took advantage of their numerical superiority to put the Knights under pressure and they scored again after 17 minutes when they attacked down their right flank. Right wing Marika Vakacegu kicked ahead on the Knights 22 and, although the ball was claimed by the covering Ben Jones, it came lose and was grabbed by Bees scrum half Nicky Griffiths who dived over. Although Higgins missed the conversion, it was now game on for the Knights as they threw everything into the attack. Although the Knights scrimmaging improved with the introduction of List, Boden and Tom Davies from the bench but their backrow was given an object lesson in the dark arts of winning the ball on the ground. The introduction of Mark Woodrow at flyhalf against his old club gave the Knights a sharper attacking edge and they thought they had scored when right wing Bailey dived over but the touch judge ruled that he had hit the corner flag first so the try was disallowed. Still they attacked and, after Tom Davies had been stopped just short in front of the posts, the ball was moved sharply to the left where snappy passing involving Woodrow and Bailey gave Van Vuuren the chance to dive over in the corner. Woodrow’s conversion from the touch line missed and the Knights desperately need to regain possession from the kickoff with less than 10 minutes to go. Higgin’s kick off was spot on and Kenworthy was forced into touch as he gathered the ball. Pertemps gained possession from the resultant and they retained possession for the next 5 minutes as they played down the clock through their canny backrow. When the referee eventually blew his whistle it was the Bees who celebrated a well deserved win and left the Knights regretting missed scoring opportunities when they were on top in the first half.

Doncaster have to wonder how, having played so well against Nottingham last Saturday, their full-time squad could be made to look so relatively poor by a gutsy and desperate part-time team fighting for their very survival in the league. It is a question that Director of Rugby Lynn Howell will have to put his mind to when he sits down to review the match videos during the week. Whilst the referee did not help the Knight’s cause by some inconsistent referring and the Bees were very lucky not to have had at least one of their players yellow carded for offences that left two Doncaster players needing stitching, the Doncaster should not have lost this game particularly after the start they had.

Pretemp Bees: R Spee (D Knight 17); M Vakacegu, A Grove, A Maggs; A Aston; J Higgins, N Griffiths; M Long; S Pearl (D Bick 66); P Buckton (J Reddlonghuys 65); A Davidson; M Gabey; R Eanshaw; W Matthews; G McComb Subs not used U Kazombiaze; R Halavatau; P Knight; M Mangolles.

Doncaster Knights: W Davies; P Bailey; B Hunt; S Davey; D Van Vuuren, C Rees (M Woodrow 59); B Jones (D Storey 40 – 44); T Toke (R List 45); B Phillips (S Boden 45); N Ta’u (T Davies 55); L. Fa’aoso (B Griffiths 65); G Kenworthy; J Jones; C Planchant (O Cook 24 – 27); T Luke subs not used: M Woodrow; D Storey; R List; S Boden; T Davies; B Griffiths;

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