Doncaster Knights 39 Rotherham Titans 15
Convincing Knights slay Titans at the Castle
At last, a performance for the Castle Park faithful to enjoy and which Lynn Howells had been searching for several weeks. It wasn’t a complete performance by any means: after the best of starts there was a 15 minute spell mid first half when the Knights stuttered and a ten minute spell late in the game when they lost concentration to leak two tries. But it certainly was delightful to watch in parts and came just at the right moment in the season. A fourth successive win against local rivals was exactly what the home support wanted and bragging rights are now firmly established in Doncaster.
Howells had made three changes this week. Simon Bunting and Anthony Carter returned, fired up, to face their former club along side Glen Kenworthy; and Chris Planchant continued his impressive development at flanker alongside the returning skipper, Glen Wilson, in a back row that also included the ever industrious Simon Grainger. Looking for a strong start, the Knights got it. Their kick off was well recovered and a penalty forced in the first attack. Mark Woodrow hit the kick towards the left corner and from the ensuing line out, Steve Boden was efficiently driven over with less than two minutes on the clock. Against and across the strong breeze, Woodrow’s kick was spot on and the ideal start completed. Rotherham had an immediate chance to get three points back but Jamie Blackwood’s penalty after a line out offence slid left of the posts. The visitors did make two visits into the home ’22 but the defence held firm. But when Carter’s long clearance kick failed to find touch, and Boden was offside ahead of the kicker, Blackwood did this time hit the target for what were Rotherham’s only points of the half. They had chances to score. A 15 minute spell of largely Rotherham pressure saw the home side concede penalties, and Rotherham spurned three points by electing for a scrum under the home posts which the powerful Knights’ eight managed to turn for turnover possession and a relieving clearance. Blackwood did hit the upright with another penalty shot and Paul Bailey was alert enough to gather the rebound a put a huge kick away to touch. Out of defence for the first time in a while, it was then Doncaster’s turn to benefit from the referee’s view of front row machinations but Woodrow’s kick into the wind was short. It was a typical derby game at this point. Attritional forward play as both packs tried to break the other, and suggestions to the referee by both sides of the dark arts being performed out of his sight. But gradually we saw more of the ball wide and the home backs did look threatening. The wind was hard to play into and one felt that any half time lead would be secure with it behind the Knights after the break. That lead was twice extended in the minutes before half time. First, a flowing backs move with Carter, Woodrow and Donavan Van Vuuren involved brought play into the visitors’ 22: Ben Jones sniped to get close; and Planchant was on hand to pick the placed ball and drive himself over the line. Woodrow couldn’t add the extras but he did succeed with a penalty soon after when the Rotherham backs were offside as the Knights pressed again. 15-3 at the break with the wind at their backs and it was the Knights who looked very much in control.
They cam out after their break and were straight back on the case, full of vigour to drive to the visitors’ 22 where a desperate flapping hand from an offside defender stripped the ball from Jones as he was about to unleash the backs. Clinically Woodrow took three points. Soon after, as Wilson was penalised on the floor, Boden choose to argue the referee’s decision to make Blackwood’s kick 10 metres easier and will have been relieved to see the kick hit the post again. Referees never change their minds after decisions. When will players learn that? There then followed a marvelous home try. Paul Bailey, starved of first half ball, found himself with half a yard of space and was away down the right like a rocket. Stopped just short of the line, he managed to make the ball available and as Woodrow drifted across the face of the Rotherham defence, Van Vuuren cut a lovely angle to take the scoring pass and make it under the posts. Woodrow’s kick was simple enough but he did cause anguish minutes later when a penalty to the corner was hit too hard and went dead in goal as the Knights went for the bonus point try. It wasn’t long in coming, though. Young Tongan prop Toma Toke had replaced his older countryman and made immediate impact. His strong carry set up the situation where quick blind side ball sent Bailey away once again down his wing – again he was felled just short of the line but managed a smart offload to Bryn Griffiths, superbly up in support to crash over from short range. Woodrow’s extra two made it 32-3 and job done just past the hour. But just when the Knights should have stepped on the gas and put the Titans to the sword, they somehow managed to relax and let in two tries in four minutes. First they were caught out when the Titans overloaded the blind side at a ruck and Michael McComish put Rob Connolly away for a simple score that Blackwood converted. Then a silly moment at the other end – just as the Knights got into a great position to score, they set up a ruck close to the Rotherham line and laid back quick ball for what should have been the kill. What they hadn’t noticed was that Ben Jones was down injured elsewhere. No scrum half to move the ball. The surprised Alex Dunlop saw the ball lying there and stepped over to pick it up. Off he set up the right touchline, gathering pace as he went with no defender in sight. The one who did chase him at a 45 degree angle was Brad Hunt and he did catch him to put in the flying tackle of the season just metres short of the line and fell the big flanker; but Errie Claassens was in support to gather the ball and score. This woke the Knights up and they ended the game as they had played most of it, in Rotherham territory on the front foot, and gave the afternoon a fitting climax with a try out of the top drawer. Toke was again in the thick of it, carrying strongly, and when he released the ball, it flew through several pairs of fast hands to create the space for Brad Hunt to squeeze into the right corner and then sprint round behind the posts to make the kick simple for Woodrow who collected 14 points to take him past the 150 mark for the season.
Lynn Howells was at last pleased with what he had seen and the Knights will travel to Exeter next Saturday in excellent heart.
Doncaster: Carter, Bailey, Hunt, Davey, Van Vuuren, Woodrow (Rees 75), Jones (Storey 78), Bunting (List 62), Boden (Davies T 78), Tau (Toke 55), Griffiths, Kenworthy, Planchant, Grainger, Wilson (Cook 78).
Rotherham: Claassens, Blackwood, Griffiths, Connolly, Grissing (Feeley 57), Allan, Chivers (Hallam 50), Corsair (Walsh 40), Conroy (Corrigan 57), Boulton (O’Donnell 57), Waterhouse (O’Connor 77), McGowan, Dunlop, Cochrane (Sutton 70), McComish.
Referee: M Wilson (RFU)
picture of Toma Toke in action by Stef Gascoigne |
