Doncaster Rugby Club

Home  News

For their 5th round EDF Cup match against cup favourites and unbeaten league leaders Northampton Saints, Doncaster’s Director of Rugby Lynn Howells reverted back to what, injuries excepting, is probably his strongest team on current form. From the side that lost so disappointingly last weekend there were recalls for Anthony Carter at fullback, Justin Bishop on the wing, Mark Woodrow at flyhalf, Richard List at prop, Steve Boden at hooker, Luke Gross at lock and Ollie Cook at flanker. A positional change saw Bryn Griffiths switch from lock to flanker. For their part Northampton Saints included their three All Blacks with skipper Bruce Reihana at fullback and the mercurial Carlos Spencer and Mark Robinson at half back. Amongst their replacements, they included Dylan Hartley who had come off the bench to star for England Saxons against Ireland “A” the previous night.

Doncaster elected to play into a strong wind the first half and, not surprisingly, it was the Saints who had the first scoring opportunity when a trade mark “banana” chip by Spencer over the Knights rush defence just eluded the chasing attackers. As the game went on both defences got increasingly on top with the Knights losing nothing compared with their more illustrious opponents and, try though he could, Spencer could not break down the Doncaster tacklers. Doncaster, for their part, found time to attack but found the Saints defence just as hard to break down. However, whilst defending superbly, the Knights fell foul of the referee giving the Saints six kickable penalty opportunities of which Reihana was successful with four. Northampton too upset the referee on a couple of occasions and, although Mark Woodrow was short with a long attempt into the wind, he made no mistake when the Knights were awarded a penalty 22 metres out. What perhaps sums up the half were two things – firstly most of Reihana’s kicks were from 40 metres out which shows where most of the play took place (a superb effort by the Knights given the wind) and, secondly, the Saints showed the battling home side respect by electing to take the kicks. For the last 5 minutes of the half the Knights “pick and go” tactics started to pay dividends as they drove towards the Saints’ goal line foot by foot. When they eventually moved the ball wide to the left, the Saints were penalised and a kick to an attacking 5 metre lineout gave the Knights one last chance. The lineout was won and the pack drove the ball towards the try line for what seemed a good try. However the referee blew up and waited as the players peeled away before deciding that a try had not been clearly scored and blew up for half time. With a half-time lead of only 12 points to 3 and a strong wind to play into in the second half, it was the Saint’s management team who looked the more anxious as the sides left the field.

Doncaster had a good scoring chance early after the restart when, following a five-metre scrum near the Saints ’line, the Knights attempt to drive over with a series of drives. When these were stopped the ball was moved wide and, after a super pickup by Woodrow off his toes, his diagonal kick to the chasing Paul Bailey was just caught by the Saints’ winger who stopped the danger. Northampton’s concern was expressed when they decided to bring on England Saxon’s hooker Dylan Hartley to strengthen their pack which the Knight’s were more than holding their own with. For the next 15 minutes both defences held sway with neither side managing to create a good scoring opportunity. Unfortunately the referee was not nearly as generous to the Knights with penalties as he had been to the Saints in the first half so the home side had no kicking chances to eat into the visitor’s lead. With 15 minutes of the second half gone, a break by Saints down the right hand side after the home defence had been sucked was just defended but the ball was then moved quickly to the right and, after a strong run by flanker Mark Easter, the ball was slipped to supporting center Jon Clarke who managed to crash through the home defence for the game’s first try. Reihana missed the conversion from wide out but Saints still had a 14-point cushion with a quarter of the match remaining. Doncaster never gave up and, when at last the referee started awarding them penalties, their kicks to the corner for driving attacks from the resultant line outs were stopped by the Saints. The Knight’s fullback Anthony Carter did manage to “score” with about 10 minutes remaining but it was disallowed for a forward pass earlier in the move. The remainder of the game was played out midfield with neither defences yielding an inch in spite of the best attempts of both sides create scoring opportunities.

After the match the Knights were left ruing the one try they had conceded and the number of penalty chances they had allowed Reihana in the first half. Lynn Howells (still celebrating Wales victory over England) said he was very pleased with his side’s performance for the most part and the way that they had stuck to their game plan to nullify the Saint’s talented back division. He said he felt that those who had said that the Saints did not play well did not give enough credit to the Knights for the pressure they had put on them. He said that the big plus to him had been the performance of big lock Bryn Griffiths at blindside flanker where he was able to use his strength and power to good effect. He said he was really looking forward to the league match against the same opponents this coming Sunday at Castle Park when he fancied his side’s chances of being the first club to lower the Saint’s colours this season.

Teams:
Doncaster Knights – A. Carter; P. Bailey, B Hunt, S Davey, J Bishop (D Van Vuuren 71mins); M Woodrow, B Jones; R List (T Toke 56), S Boden, N Ta’u (T Davies 64mins), L Gross (L Fa’aoso 50mins), G Kenworthy, B Griffiths, O Cook, C Planchant (subs not used D Storey; T Luke, B Phillips

Northampton Saints – B Reihana (capt); N Starling, J Clarke (J Ansbro 81mins), J Downey, P Diggin; C Spencer (S Myler 78mins), M Robinson (J Howard 64mins); T Smith (S Tonga’uiha 64mins), P Shields (D Hartley 51mins), B Stewart, M Lord (P Hoy 78mins), A Rae, M Easter, D Fox, M Hopley (P Tupai 73mins).

<< Back To News

Other News Articles

ESHER V KNIGHTS REPORT
4TH OFFICIAL VACANCY
AXV FOR MONDAY
DVD GAME APOLOGY