A few words on this week’s team selection as the Knights take on Bedford Blues in Round 10 of the RFU Championship.
“We are excited to see the new half back partnership of Billy McBryde and Ollie Fox play together. Russell Bennett back into the team at 12, which shows our positive intent of wanting to move the ball around. Jack Metcalf starts at fullback after doing well off the bench last week. Fyn Brown took a knock and not quite fit for this week. Sam Olver has had a scan and will require an operation unfortunately, so he’s going to be out for some time. Archie Smeaton, Rhys Tait and Jack Digby together in the back row will give the team loads of energy.”
We emphasised in our last statement our principled objections to a franchise or selection-based Tier 2. Rather than seek to discuss these objections and others, the RFU has chosen to threaten us with effective relegation to the National Leagues for non-compliance, while ignoring the unresolved questions on governance, commercial strategy, promotion/relegation, player welfare and the player development pathway. We have offered alternative proposals on the way forward to the Board without response.
The current RFU plan to present any recommendation to Council is extremely premature, until such fundamental issues are addressed and consensus reached so that the game can move forward via agreement rather than ultimatum. We would appeal to Council not to approve any plans for Tier 2 until our proposals are discussed in detail and there is full clarity on these fundamental issues.
We have discussed this matter with Sport England because without further clarity on funding and governance, it will be impossible to ensure that Championship clubs are able to repay their Covid loans. We believe they share our concerns.
We believe that no club can place value on a process involving expressions of interest when there is so little necessary detail.
However, we can only act for ourselves: consequently the 11 current Championship clubs request that the Board sets an urgent date to hear in full our amended proposals – proposals which share all of the RFU’s objectives, albeit reached via different routes which we consider achievable, pragmatic and full of vision for the future growth of the game.
Aloisi ‘Imi’ Vereimi (Aloisio Vereimi Namuatabu Qorowale) is a 28-year-old Fijian rugby player standing at 1.86 m tall (6 ft 1 in) and weighing in at 105 kg (16 st 7.49 lb; 231.49 lb)
Having leaving the British Army in the summer of 2022, where he served as a rifleman in the 2nd Battalion, Vereimi signed with Newcastle Falcons as a winger and made his debut away at Leicester Tigers.
Here’s what Steve Boden, Director or Rugby at Doncaster Knights had to say about the signing…
“Obviously with Harry Davey being out with a shoulder injury and Connor Edwards also out with a shoulder injury, AJ Cant is still out with a return to play, were a little bit light in the back line. Imi is a guy we have worked with in the past, he fit in really well with our boys and the club and I think he really enjoyed his time when he came on loan, so it was an obvious opportunity to work together again and hopefully he can get in some rugby in the near future.”
You can catch Imi and the rest of the Doncaster Knights this Saturday 13th January at Castle Park, where they play Ampthill in Round 9 of the Championship rugby campaign.
DONCASTER KNIGHTS SIGN SECOND ROW, CHARLIE BECKETT FOR REMAINDER OF 2023/24 SEASON!
Doncaster Knights would like to announce the signing of Second Row/Lock, Charlie Beckett, from Ealing Trailfinders, for the remainder of the 2023/24 season.
‘Originally part of Leicester Tigers academy, he made the switch to Gloucester academy where he captained Gloucester United in the ‘A’ League competition. He was also dual-registered with London Welsh and Hartpury College in lower league competitions for professional development.
He represented England U18’s back in the 2014-15 season. He was also named in the England U20’s for the 2015 Six Nations U18’s Championship and for the 2015 Six Nations U20’s Championship
On 2 May 2018, Beckett signed a two year professional contract with RFU Championship side Jersey Reds from the 2018-19 season. On 19 August 2020, Beckett left Jersey with immediate effect because the English Championship for the 2019-20 season stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic, he re-signed with old club Gloucester on a short-term deal for the remainder of the season.
He signed for Ampthill ahead of the 2020-21 Season and after a short stint, as well as a summer in Australia, Charlie then found his way over to Ealing.’
Here’s what Charlie had to say about joining the Knights and his goals for the remainder of the season…
We caught up with Steve Boden, Director of Rugby at Doncaster Knights, and here’s what he had to say about the arrival of Charlie…
“Really happy to get Charlie Beckett in, we know Charlie’s been around the league for some time, and we know what he can bring. He’s got good experience and he’s good in the tight. There’s a lot of hard work in the forward pack and I feel that he’s a good leader, so it gives us something a bit different in our tight 5 and with Ben Murphy being out for some time, it was important that we strengthened our second-row department.
A few of the guys inside our environment know Charlie and can vouch for him as a bloke, which is probably the most important thing when coming into the Doncaster Knights camp.”
As well as the arrival of Charlie, the Knights have Cam Terry joining the squad for the remainder of the season, on loan from Ealing Trailfinders.
“Really happy that Cam has come back on loan with us only having 2 fit hookers at the time, it was somewhere that we needed to make sure we had enough numbers in the front row. Cam was really impressive in his first spell, he’s a young English born player who’s desperate to get a bit more rugby under his belt but the competition he will have between him-self, Tom Doughty and George Roberts will be pretty fierce, but were looking forward to him contributing in a Doncaster Knights shirt at some point this season.” -Steve Boden, Director of Rugby
Cam joined the Knights on loan for a brief spell back in October, here’s what he had to say about being back in a Doncaster shirt…
“How do you feel about being back in a Doncaster shirt and what are you looking forward to the most?”
I’m looking forward to getting back out on the pitch, putting a shirt on, back with the boys. I’m excited to see some familiar faces from the last time I was here and hopefully win a few games.
“You were with us back in October, is there anything you got from your time with us back then, that you can apply to the rest of your season with us?”
We had a lot of units the last time I was up here, I really enjoyed working with Bodes, being an Ex-hooker and everything, I learned a lot from him and there’s a lot of experience in that pack, so just learning and picking a few of the lads’ brains, I learned so much, so I’m happy to be back.
“What are your goals for the rest of the 2023/24 season?”
Hopefully, win a few games with the boys, and push up the table, competitively.
You can see Charlie, Cam and the rest of your Knights on Saturday 13th January, where they play Ampthill Rugby, right here at Castle Park.
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Caldy were very good & fully deserved it today and we were just 1/2% off it & that’s enough in this league.
Created 2 or 3 opportunities in the first half that we couldn’t convert & Caldy built a good lead off doing the opposite really & being clinical in the 22. Showed good fight to play 20 minutes with 14 men & to keep them out at the end and get a losing bonus point.
Ultimately poor discipline cost us which invited them to start with the ball too many times deep in our half.
Some great lessons for us to take out of today and we’ve got to come back after the Christmas break and respond positively with January being a massive month for us in the league.
Shown a number of times we can respond well to set backs already this season, got to move on fast and get excited about the challenges ahead, starting with 2 back to back home games against Ampthill and Bedford Blues.
Statement by the Championship Clubs – December 22, 2023.
The RFU did not inform Championship clubs in advance of publication of the comments that the CEO and others chose to give to the press last week about our collective discussions over the future of the second tier. The game will also have seen the Funding and Growth strategy document which was sent to our clubs and the Council a few days ago containing certain conditional proposals.
We wish to respond on a number of matters.
First, we share the RFU’s desire to build a competitive and valuable second tier with all the ambition you need in a sporting competition. That is not possible for as long as Premiership Rugby Ltd and the RFU choose to maintain the current barriers to entry, which by necessity leaves the Championship as the top of the competitive pyramid in English rugby.
Second, the significant underinvestment in our league over recent times – central funding cut by 75% with no prospect of meaningful improvement – has left us self-reliant, self-funded and self-sustaining. This is the overall backdrop.
The RFU has now chosen to criticise our attitude to their flawed proposals, which we do not believe represent a whole-game solution. Not only do we need a whole-game solution, but we need a whole-game response to the proposals laid out by the RFU, so in the New Year we will be making public our views on the details – as far as we can ascertain them – of the Premiership II plan.
For now, we would like to repeat what we said on November 17, that the Championship clubs are not interested in a league that follows a franchise or selection-based model.
That means a league in which clubs are chosen to be part of a new tier two because of a commercial, geographic or financial consideration, rather than gaining membership by virtue of promotion and relegation. Meritocracy is a longstanding principle of rugby in this country, even if franchises might work elsewhere and in other sports. Basing entry to Tier 2 on minimum operating standards or on the perceived importance of their “brand”, rather than merit, would deprioritise the quality of rugby, of coaching and player development in Tier 2 at a time when Tier 1 is already cutting squads back.
However, we fully support the research going on to identify ambition in other parts of the country to assist in growing the game.
We share the RFU’s view that a second tier must be viable and of the highest possible standard. This requires continual improvements over time on and off the field, but the critical point, which the RFU knows, is that these improvements have to be developed and paid for. Unfortunately, while so little funding is allocated towards the second tier in general, our attitude has to be progressive and clubs need time to build a business plan. We have constantly urged earlier disclosure of funding plans to allow time for our clubs to plan with confidence.
We commit totally to an effective player development pathway when PRL and RFU have decided, with us, what they really mean by that. Discussions are ongoing. Gametime and vital life experience is achieved for our young players by meaningful contracts and time spent with our clubs. Our value over the last years is undeniable, with more than 100 International recognitions for players who have been part of the Championship.
Unlike the RFU, we believe that the Championship under our amended proposals is a wholly investible proposition. Indeed, collectively the current clubs’ benefactors have invested some £200 million since this league first came into being. We accept that it would be even more investible if the RFU had not cut funding levels so deeply during the most difficult period for competitive sports clubs in the modern era. They have failed by their own admission to commercialise our business. Now that, at our request, we have been given those rights to exploit, we can try to build separate revenue streams.
Governance of Tier Two is a key consideration here at a time when the whole Union is to be reviewed and upgraded following independent analysis. A joint venture with the RFU is the most appropriate at this time while understandably PRL ensures its own fitness for purpose. This does not mean we cannot formally connect to the very top of the game over time in this area.
A key point is that our clubs have very strong rugby DNA. We believe in that heritage as a force for the future and so do dozens of other clubs in leagues below the Championship who aspire to the top. We are committed to working with the RFU to find ways of preserving that DNA – all that is best about the sport we love – while continuing the vitally important work of creating a strong and sustainable second tier for the good of the whole game.
Our objectives are common and we agree on so much, but our approach is different and based on decades of rugby and business experience. That demands respect and attention and the RFU Board should engage its full effort in listening to us. The Union was set up to be a guardian of the whole game in this country across all ages and talents. It must now fulfil those responsibilities.
We will have more to say on this early in the New Year.
Here is your starting XV Doncaster Knights for the Round 8 Championship Rugby clash Vs. Caldy Rugby
1.CONOR DAVIDSON
2.GEORGE ROBERTS
3.CORRIE BARRETT
4.FYN BROWN
5.EHIZE EHIZODE
6.HARRY WILSON
7.ARCHIE SMEATON
8.JACK DIGBY (C)
9. ALEX DOLLY
10.RUSSELL BENNETT
11.MALIQ HOLDEN
12.CONNOR EDWARDS
13.JOE MARGETTS
14.GEORGE SIMPSON
15.BILLY MCBRYDE
REPLACEMENTS
TOM DOUGHTY
HARRISON COURTNEY
ANDREW FOSTER
ADAM HOPKINSON
EVAN MINTERN
OLLIE FOX
JOE BEDLOW
JACK METCALF
We’re carrying a few injuries within the squad currently with Seb Nagle-Taylor, AJ Cant & Lewis Thiede all out with concussion, Ben Murphy & Harry Davey are both out with shoulder injuries and Rhys Tait sprained his ankle Vs. Edinburgh, so isn’t quite ready for this week.
We’re putting out a team as close as that of our Cornish Pirates starting XV from a couple of weeks ago that performed really well, so were hoping we can keep that performance level high against a very tough team.
Caldy are always very strong at home and got a great away win at the weekend at Ampthill, so we are going to have to be at our very best.
