Knights Get Best of Coventry in Bonus-Point Win at Castle Park

Doncaster Knights rid themselves of any thoughts of their early season defeat to Coventry as they defeat the opposition 31-9 today at Castle Park.

Steve Boden’s men secured the bonus point win with five tries – three converted – to claim valuable points and continue their home-win record.

The first points of the match, in fact, went against the Knights. Coventry were awarded a penalty for the Knights collapsing a driving maul and stand-off Tony Fenner stepped up to elect for the posts and put the visitors on the board first.

The Knights replied minutes later with a try which proved how dogged they were willing to be to secure the win. Camped in the Coventry 22, recycling ball well, Mark Best took a pass from Alex Dolly to feed Maliq Holden. The winger hopped around before popping the ball of – mid-tackle – to Harry Davey who dove for the line. Dolly’s conversion drifted just wide, but the Knights were still in the lead.

Fenner put Coventry – who were reduced to 14 men shortly after as Jonathan Kpoku was sent to the sin bin – a hairs-breadth in front on the quarter-hour mark with a penalty for offside but the Knights were fighting back soon enough.

Just shy of half-time the home side crossed the whitewash again. Dominating the Coventry 22, Donny took an extremely quick tap from a penalty as John Kelly crashed over directly under the posts. The conversion added from Dolly allowed the Knights to secure double Coventry’s points on the board.

Boden’s men ran back into the changing rooms for half-time with a 12-6 lead but looking as if more points were most definitely on their minds.

Coventry were again the first side on the board, however, with another well-struck kick from Fenner securing their third, and last, penalty of the day. The visitors were soon hampered by ill-discipline once more as Aaron Hinkley was sent to the sin-bin.

The Knights took full advantage of the lack of man-power. They battered the Coventry line before Guido Volpi slammed over for a third Knights try. With the conversion successful from Dolly, they looked to close in on the bonus point score.

On the hour mark, Coventry were reduced to 13 men as this time it was Andy Forsyth shown the yellow card, looked to be for a cynical knock on. In this period, the Knights wrapped up their bonus point. 

Having used the full width of the field to attack, ball was fed to Jack Spittle who danced around a defender long enough to hand off to Best, with the centre completing the score. It was a tough kick for Dolly right out on the wing but a monstrous strike of the boot sent it sailing over without issue.

George Oram entered the field to make his Doncaster Knights debut and surely added extra heaving power to the rolling maul which ultimately finished the game. With George Roberts at the back with ball in hand, the Knights secured a fifth and final score, as the conversion attempt from Olver was unsuccessful.

It’s a very important set of points for Steve Boden’s men to add to their table tally as they head into the second half of a fiercely contested Championship season.

Their next test will come when the Donny men travel to London Scottish on Boxing Day.

Match Statistics

Knights XV | 15 Harry Davey; 14 Jack Spittle, 13 Joe Margetts, 12 Mark Best, 11 Maliq Holden; 10 Billy McBryde, 9 Alex Dolly; 1 Conor Davidson, 2 George Edgson, 3 Gaz Denman, 4 John Kelly, 5 Danny Drake, 6 Guido Volpi, 7 Sam Hudson, 8 Thom Smith (c).

Replacements | 16 George Roberts, 17 Ben Carlile, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 George Oram, 20 Jack Davies, 21 Lloyd Wheeldon, 22 Sam Olver, 23 Fraser Strachan.

Tries: Davey, Kelly, Volpi, Best, Roberts.

Conv: Dolly 3

Coventry XV | 15 Rob Knox; 14 Rob Stevenson, 13 Andy Forsyth, 12 Tom Griffiths, 11 Louis James; 10 Tony Fenner, 9 Joe Snow; 1 Toby Trinder, 2 Joe Richardson, 3 Phil Boulton (c), 4 Nile Dacres, 5 Jonathan Kpoku, 6 Adam Peters, 7 Aaron Hinkley, 8 Fred Betteridge.

Replacements | 16 Seb Blake, 17 Luc Jeannot, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Ben Meakin, 20 Tom Ball, 21 Josh Barton, 22 Tom Curtis, 23 Tom Stanton.

Pens: Fenner 3

Yellow cards: Kpoku, Hinkley, Forsyth

Referee: Alex Thomas