Here is all the important information for tomorrow’s game at Castle Park. 

Joe Ford and Sir Ian McGeechan have made a few tactical changes to their starting line up since last week’s win against Ampthill.

In the pack, the only changes are to the front row. Logovi’i Mulipola moves across to tight-head prop, making way for Conor Davidson at loose-head. This will be Davidson’s 50th cap for Doncaster Knights.

George Roberts remains to be the starting hooker. Joe Jones and Andrew Turner are on the props on the bench, while Fred Davies remains as the replacement hooker. 

The rest of the forwards pack stays the same. Thom Smith and captain, Ben Murphy at second row, with Archie Smeaton, Rhys Tait and Morgan Strong on the back row. 

Morgan Bunting comes in for Russ Bennett at fly-half. The remainder of the starting back line stays the same. Alex Dolly as scrum-half, Zach Kerr and Connor Edwards in the centre, with Maliq Holden, Semesa Rokoduguni and Jordan Olowofela at back three. 

Both Morgan Bunting and Jordan Olowofela have joined the Knights this season, from Nottingham and will therefore be going head-to-head with their previous club. 

There is a couple of other tactical changes to the bench – Bath loanee Arthur Green comes in for Jasper McGuire and second row, Cory Teague also gets a space on the bench. Ollie Fox remains the scrum-half replacement, but George Wacokecoke replaces Harry Davey on the bench.

Starting XV | 1. Conor Davidson , 2. George Roberts, 3. Logovi’i Mulipola 4. Ben Murphy (C), 5. Thom Smith, 6. Archie Smeaton, 7. Rhys Tait, 8. Morgan Strong, 9. Alex Dolly, 10. Morgan Bunting, 11. Maliq Holden, 12. Connor Edwards, 13. Zach Kerr, 14. Semesa Rokoduguni, 15. Jordan Olowofela

Replacements | 16. Fred Davies, 17. Andrew Turner, 18. Joe Jones, 19. Taniela Ramasibana, 20. Arthur Green, 21. Cory Teague, 22. Ollie Fox, 23. George Wacokecoke 

Tickets for the fixture are still available here!

Full back Jordan Olowofela previews the Nottingham fixture this weekend and explains his feelings about facing his brother. 

Olowofela was a star man during last weeks performance as his scored a hat-trick on his Doncaster Knights Championship debut. 

He said: “it was good. We had a long preseason. I think it was 10 weeks of training hard. It was good to get out for the first home game and win like that.” 

The 26-year-old is one of the new additions to the squad this season. He explains how he is finding the team: “it’s a really tight group of lads. Everybody makes you feel welcome. Good coaches and staff too. It’s really good.”

Nottingham are the team that Olowofela was part of before joining Doncaster Knights.

“It’ll be strange to play against them, but it’ll also be good, obviously it’s a new team now, it will be good to go against some old and new faces.”

As well as facing his old team, he will also be facing his twin brother, Ryan Olowofela.

“I have played against him before, a long time ago, maybe five years ago, but it’ll be good to play against him.” 

“It’s a tricky one for the family and friends not knowing who to support. We’re both competitive, but not in a hindrance way. Growing up we’d all support each other.” 

Finally, Olowofela reflects the mood in the squad heading into the weekend, “we are buzzing to go again, especially at home. Training’s been very good as well.” 

If you want to catch Jordan and the rest of the team in action, you can secure your tickets here.

Bury St Edmunds defeated Oxford Harlequins 61-33 in their first home game of the season. Doncaster Knight’s loanees Will Metcalfe (wing/scrum half), James Harrison (second row) and Calvin Mitchell (prop) featured in the starting line up for the winning side. 

Both Metcalfe and Mitchell got their names on the score sheet – with Metcalfe earning man of the match. 

Bury opened the scores just two minutes in as their scrum half Elliott McPhun scored. Shortly after, Mitchell scored after a series of powerful drives. 

Metcalfe scored two tries during his ‘man of the match performance’ – starting on the wing and moving to scrum half in the second half. 

You can read their full match report here

Photo credit: beanstalkmedia

Bury’s next fixture is away to Dorking this weekend. 

Doncaster Knights began their Championship season with a 45-31 home win against Ampthill. Captain Ben Murphy spoke post game about how he felt the performance went:

“To get five points from the first game is always a positive. Obviously there’s parts of the game that we can improve on and there’s probably certain times where we lost control of the game. But like I said, five points from the first game is all you can ask for really.”

Murphy explained how despite being a very new squad, this did not effect their coherence on the pitch. “It’s probably one of the closest groups I’ve been in. We had a complete turnover, basically more than half the squad left. Everyone who’s come in, they’ve bought into the culture.

“And credit to the back room staff and the coaches that gave us the opportunity to bond, like the weekend in Bury which was very beneficial. Everyone seemed to gel. And from that moment forward we’ve become a team, really.”

The second row briefly looked ahead to the rest of the season: “Like anyone, you don’t play to come second. You always play to come first. So we’re taking it one game at a time. We’re not looking too far ahead, but we’d be lying if we weren’t looking for the top.

“It’s as realistic as you want to make it, I think. If you believe in it, then we can go on to do it. But like I said, we’re taking it one game at a time. We’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”

“Our back’s were very dangerous and our forwards have operated well with a couple of maul tries. We’ve got a few injured players coming back next week but other than that, we’ve not really looked too far ahead.” 

The Knights have been back on site training with their attention now on Saturday’s fixture against Nottingham. You can secure your tickets here!

Click below to watch the highlights from Saturday’s game against Ampthill: 

Doncaster Knights started off their Championship campaign on the right foot as they beat visitors Ampthill 45-31 in the first round of the Championship.

The Knights lit up Castle Park almost instantly as a turnover in the breakdown from Thom Smith gave the hosts a penalty. Russ Bennett then kicked to touch before a successful Doncaster line out followed.

George Roberts threw a long ball in the line out to Connor Edwards, which allowed Doncaster to move the ball between the backs and open up the space for Jordan Olowofela to score the first try of the day.

Maliq Holden showed incredible work rate to set Donny up for a second try. Zach Kerr put in a kick up the wing which Holden chased, before tackling the Ampthill player who received the kick and then turning over the ball in the breakdown.

Following the penalty, Bennett kicked to touch, and George Roberts worked his way over the try line off the back of the rolling maul. Bennett added the extras.

Alex Dolly received a yellow card and Ampthill began to show some fight. The visitors spent a long time in the 22 before stretching the ball out wide and scoring in the corner. Their fly half Josh Barton added the extras.

Around 10 minutes later, with Dolly back on the field, Rhys Tait claimed the next five points for Doncaster. Dolly assisted the flanker’s try as he shipped the ball out to Tait, allowing him to squeeze over the line mid-tackle. Bennett slotted the conversion again. 

The backline then worked together beautifully as Zach Kerr tipped the ball to Jordan Olowofela while being tackled. Olowofela then sent the ball back inside to Russell Bennett, who used his footwork to beat Ampthill’s final defender and score. Bennett then added the extra two points to his own try, leaving the half time score 26-7.

Ampthill continued to show some fight heading into the second half, they come close after a series of pick-and-go’s within the 22. However, when they won a penalty and kicked for touch, Doncaster turned the ball over in the maul.

Olowofela then showed incredible skill and speed to claim his next try. Bennett put in a cross field kick which Olowofela chased and caught brilliantly before showing real pace to get the ball over the line. Bennett scored the conversion.

Ampthill answer back as they score two tries in quick succession. The first came from a rolling maul, allowing their hooker over the line. The second was scored out on the wing as the visitors found an overlap. Neither tries were converted.

Full back, Olowofela then claimed his hat-trick try. Morgan Bunting, who had replaced Bennett, threw a long ball out to the wing, where Jordan received the ball and exploited the gap that had opened in front of him. Bunting’s conversion went slightly wide.

Ampthill add another seven points when ex-Knight Fraser Strachan chased a grubber kick from Barton and scored by the posts. Barton converted successfully.

The visitors continued to close the scores as Barton found a gap in Doncaster’s defence and scored under the posts. He added the extras.

In the 80^th minute, Semesa Rokoduguni reminded Castle Park who was in charge with fantastic decision making. Bunting’s attempt at the sticks for a penalty went to the right, however Rokoduguni chased the kick, caught the ball and scored in the corner.

Morgan Bunting then added the extras in the final kick of the game, meaning Doncaster won 45-31 and Jordan Olowofela was named man of the match.

Doncaster Knights are back in action at Castle Park again next week. We will be hosting Nottingham on September the 28^th, kick off 2:30PM.

Like what you saw today? Missed out on the action? Secure your tickets for next week here!

Here is all the important info for tomorrow’s game! Tickets are still available here.

 

Joe Ford and Sir Ian McGeechan have named their very first Championship match day squad of the season. Doncaster Knights face Ampthill at Castle Park on Saturday 21 September in round one.

The Knights are playing quite a different squad to the team that faced Bury St Edmunds during pre season. Alex Dolly moves back to his first choice position, scrum half after having a run out at fly half in August, with Ollie Fox as the replacement nine. Russ Bennett starts at fly half with local boy, Morgan Bunting on the bench. 

Zach Kerr is joined by Connor Edwards in the centre with Maliq Holden partnering Semesa Rokoduguni on the wing. Jordan Olowofela remains at full back. Harry Davey moves to the bench as back three replacement. 

In the pack, we see a brand new front row to the Bury fixture, with Logovi’i Mulipola and Joe Jones at prop and George Roberts in between as hooker. Captain Ben Murphy is paired with Thom Smith to make up the second row. 

Our back row however, remains the same as pre season. Archie Smeaton and Rhys Tait flank, with Morgan Strong at eight. 

Fred Davies, Andrew Turner and Lewis Thiede make up the front row replacements, while Taniela Ramasibana and Jasper McGuire will be ready to replace the second and back row.

Starting XV | 1. Logovi’i Mulipola, 2. George Roberts, 3. Joe Jones, 4. Ben Murphy (C), 5. Thom Smith, 6. Archie Smeaton, 7. Rhys Tait, 8. Morgan Strong, 9. Alex Dolly, 10. Russ Bennett, 11. Maliq Holden, 12. Connor Edwards, 13. Zach Kerr, 14. Semesa Rokoduguni, 15. Jordan Olowofela

Replacements | 16. Fred Davies, 17. Andrew Turner, 18. Lewis Thiede, 19. Taniela Ramasibana, 20. Jasper McGuire, 21. Ollie Fox, 22. Morgan Bunting, 23. Harry Davey

Injury news: Adam Hopkinson is out of contention due to a hand injury, with Josh Williams, Telusa Veainu, Cory Teague and George Wacokecoke unavailable due to match fitness.

Two of our new signings Morgan Strong and Ben Chapman have joined the Knights after spending last season with Ampthill.

Tickets for the fixture are available here!

Second Row, Thom Smith was part of the Knights during the 2021/22 season before moving to Jersey Reds. After his time at Jersey, Smith took some time away from the sport, before returning to Castle Park.

The 24-year-old, explained how it feels to return: “After Jersey, I took a little bit of time out from rugby. I didn’t expect to miss it as much as I did. But then I got a message from Matt [Harland] and Joey [Ford] about two months before the season started and I bit their hand off. I’m really excited to be back.”

Despite Smith having been with Doncaster previously, the squad has changed dramatically, with only a few familiar faces left from Smith’s season. He explained, “Weirdly, the team have come together very quickly. Hats off to the backroom staff. I think the players that they’ve got in are brilliant. Off the field, we’ve gelled really well. And on it, I think hopefully we’ll see the fruits of our labour come the season.”

Amongst the new team is a big selection of experienced players, Smith said: “I think their experience is invaluable. The likes of Logo and Telusa who are just coming in. Even the likes of Jordy (Jordan Olowofela) who have been at very impressive environments. Their knowledge, not only just game knowledge, but life experience too, It’s just great to have around to learn off.”

As well as the experienced players in the Squad, the Knights have acquired some young and upcoming team members too. Smith plays the same position as Bath loanee, Arthur Green. He said: “hopefully I can help guide him and he might be able to guide me as well. I think, we’ve got a good blend and it’s definitely exciting going into the season to try and see where we can finish up.” 

As part of the pre season schedule, the Knights travelled down to Bristol for a behind closed doors game. Smith, who was involved on the day explained: “I think the positive from it was that, going to an environment which is obviously in the Premiership. Firstly, their facilities are unreal, so just experiencing that was really cool.”

“And then them as an outfit as well, it was a great test. The conditions were quite poor, but it was a game we were after, we got stuck in and got a good result in the end.” (Bristol 14-33 Doncaster)

Finally, the second row emphasised the feelings in the squad heading into the start of the Championship this weekend: 

“I think just everyone’s really excited. We’ve obviously got our ambitions and our goals that we’ve set. But none of them are going to come without hard work. So we’re just looking forward to getting into it now.”

Doncaster Knights face Ampthill in the first Championship game of the season this weekend. Saturday 21 September – book your tickets now!