Doncaster RFC and Steve Boden, Director of Rugby, have parted company with immediate effect, for Steve to pursue other opportunities. 

The Board of DRFC wish Steve the very best for the future. 

England’s Under-19s will take on France Under-19s at Doncaster Knights’ ground on Saturday, March 30, kick-off 1pm, before they move on to an away game in Italy the following week.

The Under-19s side is an avenue for England Rugby pathway players for developing their skillsets with meaningful gametime on the international circuit. The squad will consist of players eligible for Under-20s selection in the summer’s World Rugby U20 Championships in South Africa, who missed out on selection for this year’s Under-20 Six Nations which runs through February and March.

It is also a significant feather in the cap of Yorkshire’s leading side in the pyramid, Doncaster Knights, who prior to Covid and before the rapid growth of the women’s team, regularly hosted international matches for England’s Red Roses.

Tickets are £12 per adult for seating, and £8 standing, with Under-16s going free, get tickets at www.drfc.co.uk/tickets

Words by Nick Westby, Doncasterfreepress.co.uk

Here at Doncaster Knights, we wanted to put the spotlight on the current players we have, who have played age grade, international rugby. We caught up with a few of the lads and spoke on rugby journeys, personal experience and transferable skills.

You can catch the Knights down at Castle Park on 2nd March where they play Coventry Rugby in Round 14 of Championship rugby (Get tickets at www.drfc.co.uk/tickets)

Issued on behalf of Championship Rugby

RFU Disciplinary: Joe Margetts, Doncaster Knights

Joe Margetts of Doncaster Knights appeared before an independent disciplinary panel chaired by Charles Cuthbert sitting with Tony Wheat and Christian Scotland-Williamson on 6 February .

He was shown a red card during the match against Cambridge Rugby on Saturday 3 February. This was for a tip tackle contrary to World Rugby Law 9.18.  Margetts accepted the charge and was given a three-week suspension.  

Margetts will miss the following games:

23.02 v Nottingham Rugby

02.03 v Coventry

09.03 v London Scottish

The full judgement can be viewed here and an infographic summarising the outcome is available here.  

For a glossary of key disciplinary terms please click here.
For RFU Regulation 19 Appendix 2 please click here.
For background detail on panel members please click here.
Previous judgements can be found here.

 

Doncaster Knights 29 v Cambridge 19 by Guy Williams.

 

A red card against Doncaster centre Joe Margetts, mid-way through the second half, for a dangerous tackle on Cambridge centre Jamie Benson, was the major talking point at Castle Park where the Knights earned maximum points to claim their seventh league victory.

 

As Benson, who’d earlier scored two excellent tries for an enterprising Cambridge team, was on the attack again, he clashed with Margetts on 60 minutes.

 

Benson landed on his neck following a tip-tackle and required treatment, but then continued. The referee Hamish Grant was decisive and brandished a red card, and it’s likely that Margetts will be banned for more than a month.

 

Although Doncaster played 20 minutes with 14 men, and wasted several opportunities to add to their lead of 26-19, Cambridge were unable to take advantage of the Knights’ understrength.

 

Knight’s coach, Steve Boden, didn’t query the red card in his post-match comments.

 

“ I can’t argue. We know the laws of the game and where it’s going. There was no intent by Joe, but Benson steps inside him, it’s high and Joe has to look after him.

 

“ I’m really happy with five points, but we should have been scoring 50 points because of where we had the ball.

 

“ But it’s the same old thing. You can have as much possession as you like, but if you don’t do anything with it, you’ll suffer. However, I’m happy with our set-piece and parts of our defence and the fact we dominated field positions.”

 

In a decent first half, tries by fly half Billy McBryde, prop Conor Davidson, winger Jack Metcalf and centre Joe Bedlow, and three conversions from full back Russell Bennett, set up Doncaster’s win against adventurous and committed opponents.

 

Indeed, after Cambridge’s third try by number eight Nahum Merigan was converted, the teams were drawing 19-19,so Doncaster

were relieved when Bedlow,set up by his powerful pack on Cambridge’s line, spotted an opening to grab his team’s fourth try just before the interval.

 

A lead of 26-19 looked flimsy, and after throwing away five decent scoring opportunities, the Knights were more than grateful when Bennett put over a penalty in the 66th, points which opened up a gap of 10 points.

 

With Doncaster leading 29-19, Cambridge were chasing the game and attacked the Knights’ line on 75 minutes, but spoiled the opportunity when conceding a penalty, so Doncaster survived.

 

Doncaster Knights:  Bennett 7, Metcalf 7(Vereimi 66 6), Margetts 5, Bedlow 7, Holden 6, McBryde 7, Fox 7(Dolly 47 6), Davidson 7(McArthur 76 6), Roberts 7(Terry 60 6), Barrett 7(Foster 60 6), Beckett 7(Brown 47 6), Ehizode 7(Mintern 60 6), Wilson 7, Tait 7(Hopkinson 66 6), Digby 7.

 

Cambridge: Caven 7, Asiedu 7, Hanks 7, Benson 8, Green 7, James 7, Duffin 7, Owen 7(Ellowood 50 7), Brownlie 7(Veness 55 7),Walker 7, Frost, Baxter 7(Adams 58 7), Bretag-Norris 7, Cardew 7(Dawson 55 7), Merigan 7(Maka 66 7).

 

 

Doncaster Knights: Tries: McBryde 10, Davidson 18, Metcalf 20, Bedlow 35. Conversions: Bennett 10, 18, 35. Penalty: Bennett 66.

 

 

Cambridge: Tries: Benson 7, 21,Merigan 30. Conversions: James 7, 30.

 

Half time: 26-19.

 

Penalties conceded:12-12.

 

Lineouts won: 13-11.

 

Lineouts lost: 1-2.

 

Scrums won: 4-2.

 

Scrums lost: 1-0.

 

Sin bin: Red card  Doncaster centre Joe Margetts.

 

Referee: Hamish Grant.

 

Attendance: 1382.

 

Star man: Jamie Benson.

 

 

 

Referee: Hamish Grant. 

Here is your Starting XV Doncaster Knights as they host Cambridge Rugby in Round 12 of Championship Rugby

We have Conor Davidson, Ehize Ehizode and Charlie Beckett coming back into the pack today, with Charlie having his first start for the club, so we’re really looking forward to seeing him go.

Joe Bedlow comes in to start at Centre, very excited to see him get stuck in after a few weeks out.

Aloisi Vereimi comes in on the bench, inline to get his first game in the league, for the club.

Archie McArthur in on the bench at #17, currently on loan from Gloucester to fill out the forward pack.

The last time the Knights faced Cambridge Rugby at Castle park, was back in September in the Premiership cup, where the Knights took a hard fought victory with a 38-11 win over the blood and sand.

Follow all the action as it happens live over on the Knights X (Twitter) @doncasterknight

 

Starting XV

1. CONOR DAVIDSON

2. GEORGE ROBERTS

3. CORRIE BARRETT

4. CHARLIE BECKETT

5. EHIZE EHIZODE

6. HARRY WILSON

7. RHYS TAIT

8. JACK DIGBY ©

9.  OLLIE FOX

10. BILLY MCBRYDE ©

11. MALIQ HOLDEN

12. JOE BEDLOW

13. JOE MARGETTS

14. JACK METCALF

15. RUSSELL BENNETT

 

Reserves

16. Cameron terry

17. Archie McArthur

18. Andrew Foster

19. Evan Mintern

20. Adam Hopkinson

21. Fyn Brown

22. Alex Dolly

23. Aloisi Vereimi

Here are your Round 11 of Championship Rugby match highlights from when your Doncaster Knights travelled south, to Ealing Trailfinders.

 

Here is your Starting XV Doncaster Knights as they make the trip down south for Round 11 of Championship Rugby against Ealing Trailfinders.

 

TEAM NEWS

The knights travel to 2^nd in the table Ealing Trailfinders this weekend searching for back-to-back wins for the first time since Round 6. The Knights narrowly missed out on an away victory the last time both teams met in the Premiership cup back in September, where they fell short of 2 points.

With a strong team put out for Bedford Blues last weekend, the Knights make 1 change within the forwards, George Roberts comes in for Tom Doughty.

We have hooker ‘John Stewart’ joining us on loan from Bath, to cover Tom Doughty due to injury, as Cameron Terry isn’t eligible to play against his parent club, whilst on loan with us.

Joe Margetts makes his 50^th appearance for the club this weekend.

You can follow all the live action on X (Twitter) at @doncasterknight.

 

Starting XV

1  Harrison Courtney

2  George Roberts

3  Corrie Barrett

4  Evan Mintern

5  Harry Wilson

6  Rhys Tait

7  Archie Smeaton

8  Jack Digby ©

9  Ollie Fox

10  Billy McBryde

11  Maliq Holden

12  Russell Bennett

13  Joe Margetts

14  George Simpson

15  Jack Metcalf

 

Replacements

16  John Stewart

17  Conor Davidson

18  Lewis Thiede

19  Ehize Ehizode

20  Charlie Beckett

21  Adam Hopkinson

22  Alex Dolly

23  Joe Bedlow

Club partner, PS Construction were awarded the Best Residential Extension at last weekend’s LABC Grand Finals in London. 

A LinkedIn post demonstrated their recent success, “We’re still buzzing from the incredible time we had at the LABC Awards Dinner on Friday. The evening was filled with excitement, laughter, and unforgettable moments, and it went on until late into the night!

We can’t express how much we enjoyed celebrating our Grand Final National Winner status with all of you. The energy and camaraderie were truly inspiring.

A heartfelt thank you to our amazing team, partners, and everyone who made this night so special. Here’s to many more memorable celebrations in the future!”

You can find out more about PS Construction here, https://psconstruction.co.uk/ 

Match Report | Championship Rugby, Round Ten | Doncaster Knights 26 – 20 Bedford Blues

 

Doncaster Knights 26 Bedford Blues 20 by Guy Williams.

Imagery by John Ashton @ickledot

 

Doncaster’s post-match celebrations in the home dressing room at Castle Park shook the entire stadium; rightly so, because after successive league defeats, this victory during a close and entertaining contest showed that the Knights were returning to form.

 

They were somewhat fortunate to win their sixth match in nine because in the last-minute Doncaster could well have lost. Bedford winger, Dean Adamson, with the line begging to be crossed and with no defender in sight, inexplicably dropped the ball, so the Knights survived, and given the inaccurate form of the Blues’ goal-kicker, Will Maisey, the fly half might have missed the conversion.

 

He’d already failed to convert any of Bedford’s four tries, so arguably Doncaster were again lucky, but compared with the displays against Caldy and Ampthill, they were aggressive, creative and sharper all-round.

 

Scoring chances were missed,though.However,their dominant pack, setting up tries for full back Jack Metcalf, prop Harrison Courtney and winger Maliq Holden were highly competitive enabling Doncaster to retain their fourth position in the Championship.

 

This much needed win was timed perfectly because they now begin preparations for Saturday’s clash away at Ealing Trailfinders, one of their hardest challenges of the league campaign. Doncaster will be without hooker Tom Doughty who suffered a nasty blow to the head against Bedford and regular fly half, Sam Olver, out for three months, following an injury against Ampthill.

 

In Olver’s place, Doncaster’s place-kicking role was taken over against Bedford by centre Russell Bennett who joined the squad after the financial collapse of Jersey Reds, winners of the Championship last season.

 

Bennett’s skilful goal kicking, a conversion and three significant penalties on 15, 40 and 60 minutes, played a major contribution towards Doncaster’s success.

 

“The pleasing aspect was that we were really physical against Bedford and dominated them up front in attack and defence. We killed them with our physicality and stayed in the game.

 

“ We held on to the ball for long phases and took our chances. I’ve settled in nicely, have been welcomed and am loving it here.Morale is high. That’s not been an issue.

 

“ Obviously, we don’t know what’s going on with the future of the Championship, but I’m a lot happier now after the turbulence at Jersey Reds,” said Bennett.

 

His boss, Director of Rugby Steve Boden, was much happier too.

 

“ I’m very proud of their efforts, but we let Bedford off the hook and should have scored 40 points given our field positions and dominance. We need to be better.”

 

Doncaster Knights: Metcalf, Simpson, Margetts, Bennett, Holden, McBryde, Fox(Dolly 73), Courtney(Davidson 52), Doughty( Terry 4), Barrett(Thiede 62), Wilson, Mintern(Ehizode 58),Smeaton(Hopkinson 71), Tait, Digby.

 

Bedford Blues:Le Bourgeios, French, Elliott(Worley 52), Matavesi(Grimoldby 66), Adamson, Maisey,Day(Lennon 48), Jack(Conway 49), Fish(Heffernan 54), O’Connor(Wright 28), Lockett, Woolford(Williams 54), Frost, Howard, King(Curran 49).

 

Referee: Joe James.

 

Here are your Championship Rugby Round 10, match Highlights of Doncaster Knights Vs. Bedford Blues.

Castle park, 20th January 2024

 

Performance much better after a tough couple of weeks. The players came out fighting, which I loved and full credit must go to them and the leadership group. Bedford are a top side in this league, we rode our luck at the end but we felt we left a lot of opportunities out there ourselves and it’s something we will need to get right for next week, our red zone conversion was only at 28% and we need it to be up at 50% consistently & that should see us putting more scoreboard pressure on the opposition when we are on top. Really exciting though because we can and will get a lot better. – Joe Ford, Head Coach