Doncaster Rugby Club

Aberavon Wizards 10 Doncaster Knights 17

The Knights kicked off their competitive season with a hugely satisfying away win at Aberavon, who play in the Welsh Premiership. Not everything went well, however, as both Oliver Cook and Glen Wilson pulled out with pre match injuries. Cook had an accident on a scrummaging machine that required a hospital visit for stitches in his chin; and Wilson pulled up with hamstring problems before kick off. It meant that Ryan Peacey had to play at eight which he adjusted to well.

It was ironic that the first try in Clive Griffiths’ reign should come from Welshman Jason Forster, his new captain and first signing. In fact, he also bagged a second in a first half that the Knights controlled and in which they should have scored more points, the final ball on occasions going astray. After the break, Aberavon came much more into the game and applied considerable pressure but Griffiths was delighted with the manner in which the Knights defence held up and the way the players ground out a result against a cohesive side that has been together for some time and has already played pre season fixtures. The only home score came from an interception and that after Ryan Peacey had scored for the visitors. Mark Woodrow could add just one conversion but the statistic that appealed most to Griffiths was the loss of just 10 points – the last time the Knights had conceded so few was last October in the win over Plymouth Albion.

One interesting guest player, who came on as a replacement, was Dave Scully who is expected to sign for the Knights in the days ahead. Released by Otley, the Doncaster resident and fittest 40 year old around would lend experience to the scrum half role where the two on the books (Ben Jones and Dan Storey) are both youngsters who would benefit from Scully’s many years of experience. Scully is also an RFU Level 2 qualified coach and would assist Griffiths in a broader role.

Griffiths was quoted after the match as saying:

“We could’ve won by a bigger margin, but we let ourselves down with the final ball. But it’s always good to get a win, and to win down here in Wales against a Premiership side is even better.

“We were under the cosh for long periods, and they had us camped on our own goal-line for a while, but we weathered the storm and eventually put them under some good pressure.

“We’re a new team and we had a lack of cohesion at times, but that’s something we can work on. It wasn’t a great performance, but it’s our first game of the pre-season and gives us plenty of positives.”

“We dominated possession in the first half, but we didn’t take the chances that presented themselves. We could have been 19-5 ahead at half time but it was only 12-5, and Aberavon came out strongly for the second half.”

The squad was in buoyant mood on their return to Yorkshire after a Saturday night out in Cardiff, looking forward to the week ahead. Next Saturday Doncaster Knights play Halifax at first (3.00pm) and second (1.15pm) XV level, and Griffiths added: “I’m going to give a few of the boys who didn’t start at Aberavon a good run-out against Halifax, and obviously playing two games gives us plenty of match time.”

Doncaster: J Boden, B. Hunt, P. Bailey, S. Davey, W. Davies, M. Woodrow, B. Jones, S. Bunting, S. Boden, J. Rawson, G. Kenworthy, L. Gross, S. Grainger, J. Forster (c), R. Peacey. Replacements used: T. Davies, R. List, D. Cook, D. Scully, J. Benson.