Doncaster Rugby Club

EDF Junior Vase – 4^th Round

Rotherham Phoenix 5   Doncaster Phoenix 24

This weekend Phoenix played in the 4th round of the EDF Cup or the ‘Twickenham Cup’ as others may know it against our South Yorkshire namesakes Rotherham Phoenix who currently play their rugby in Yorkshire 5.

Phoenix made a couple of changes from the side that beat Hullensians the week before, Ben Harris came in for Ceri Thomas and Dan Fielding replaced Al Kaihau.

Now I purposely mentioned that Rotherham Phoenix are in Yorkshire 5 because the way they started the game they should easily be in a higher league. They started the game at 100mph, with their fly half bossing well and some good strong running by their eight and inside centre. After ten minutes of good pressure Rotherham was given a scrum about ten yards out. Their eight picked and some simple hands led to their winger going over in the corner. Phoenix realised that it was not going to be as easier a day as they arrogantly thought. Captain Mark Longface made sure that Phoenix was not going to concede another try with some firm words under the posts.

From the kick off, after Miller had pointed out which lucky Rotherham player was going to get the ball, Phoenix rampaged and quickly gained possession in the Rotherham half. Some solid phases and more control in the scrum gave Phoenix good clean second phase ball about thirty yards out. A well executed move put Morris clean through with only the full back to beat and with his max speed reached ‘lorry speed, according to Smit, you take a long time to get there but once you do you take a lot to slow you down’ he managed to round the full back and get over in the corner. Miller converted.

From the kick off, Phoenix again gained possession and started to control the game, some fantastic opportunities for more scores were on offer but unfortunately a couple of handling errors meant that they were missed. But every time Phoenix lost the ball a turnover was not far behind, Oliver being very effective in the loose.

Now we all know Ian Oliver as scavenger in the loose, turning over ball with his stretchy hamstrings, but nowadays in his third decade of being he has developed a new aspect to his game. The show and almost go. In our own half under a quite a bit of pressure Oli sold a peach of a dummy opening a gap which you could fit a double decker bus on its side through. Everyone anticipated a change of pace, a change of pace, a change of pace, a change of pace. Where was it Oli? You were through and the guy you sold the dummy to turned round and caught you up. It was a good dummy though.

With about fifteen minutes to go in the first half, Phoenix had knocked over a penalty making it 10-5 and had got themselves a lineout in the Rotherham twenty-two. A simple two ball and a strong unified drive enabled Burton to flop over from a yard for his first try of the season. Miller converted. Miller was then binned in what would be the last phase of the first half for a Kinsman over a Rotherham ruck. Silly boy.

The second half started with a period of defence for Doncaster Phoenix while they only had fourteen men, but when Miller returned we picked up our game again. After some more good possession in the Rotherham twenty-two another well executed backs move by an influential Elliot put Burton through about ten yards out, which he finished well. Miller converted. This would be the last score of the game.

However, the last twenty minutes of the game was still played very competently with Phoenix dominating possession. Some very good forward drives and a couple of dynamic runs by substitute Taylor and Greenslade gave Phoenix some excellent forward motion. If it wasn’t for a Michael Owen wannabe, rugby player not footballer, Phoenix should have scored a couple more. With a twenty five man over lap Germain decided to grubber through, it ended up behind him, and in a similar situation Germain tried a twenty yard looping hospital pass which did not come off either. Head down Nick, head down.

But the most serious offence of the day was the blatant jug avoidance by Frauline Burton, who with only a yard to flop to score his hat-trick dropped the ball. It wasn’t a normal knock on as Burton caught the ball and then the cogs started turning, ‘I’m going to score, its my hat-trick, which means I’ll have to buy a jug, which means buying someone else a beer, no chance. Oops.’

In summary of the day I believe it was a good victory by Doncaster Phoenix, Rotherham sent everything at us in the first ten minutes which deservedly got them a try and they battled for the rest of the game. But the early score woke Phoenix up and we started to play our fast flowing rugby. In honesty, it should have been more.