Knights 76 – 5 Swansea.

The Knights ensured their unbeaten run at Castle Park will to stretch to over a year as they emphatically overcame Welsh SWALEC Championship outfit Swansea RFC.

Having being held by Welsh Premiership side Neath RFC last weekend, who Swansea had beaten 26-0 last April, Griff’s men were determined to get a first pre-season victory under their belts in front of the Castle Park faithful. In the end they achieve their target with plenty in hand, running in twelve tries in a comprehensive win against a Swansea side that endeavored to play running rugby for the entirety of the game.

The Knights started brightly and it wasn’t long until they were making inroads up field. A trademark, hard-hitting carry from Bevon Armitage broke the Swansea defences and had the visitors back peddling before they were penalised at the breakdown. Fly half Jamie Lennard went to the corner and a solid line out set the platform for a driving maul. With the Donny pack gathering momentum the visitors desperately tried to bring the rolling maul to a halt, they did so – illegally and referee ApGerraint-Roberts awarded the Knights a penalty try.

It wasn’t long before hosts were back on the score sheet, a nice break from number eight Alex Shaw was well supported, generating quick ball for scrum half Chris Hallam. Hallam handed on to Lennard who ghosted through the Swans line but was stopped just short of the try line and in the next phase Flockhart collected to reach over and touchdown. Dougie converted his own effort, 14-0.

The Knights set piece continued to look impressive in the early stages of the game and provided the backs with plenty of go forward ball. On the front foot, the Knights produced a lovely starter move to put Dougie Flockhart in space the Scotsman charged forward before passing to Hallam who raced away for the Knights third of the afternoon.

Dougie converted the try to establish a comfortable 21-0 lead but the Knights were not able to capitalise further on this score line before half time came. The visitors enjoyed arguably their finest spell of the game in the quarter of an hour preceding the interval with the Knights reduced to 14 men as Mat Clark was, somewhat harshly, sin binned for a deliberate knock on. The Knights were forced to defend for a concerted period and the visitors very nearly scored when Nicky Thomas broke through the line, only to be hauled down by Flockhart.

Half time, 21-0 the Knights lead.

The Knights raced out of the blocks in the second period putting the result beyond doubt in the ten minutes following interval. The first try came as a result of a succession of slick offloads, firstly Michael Hills rode a tackle to pass onto Latu Makaafi who did the same and eventually Matt Challinor collected to score. Almost immediately from the restart the Knights were back under the Swansea posts. Ben Hunter and then Alex Shaw continued an initial break from Michael Hills before the ball was put wide and Andy Bulumakau raced away for his first try in a Knights shirt.

With the Knights back up to a full compliment it looked as if things may get immediately worse for the All Whites but they were next to register when substitute fly half Paul Roberts saw his pass intercepted by the impressive Nicky Thomas who went the distance to score Swansea’s only try of the game.

With fifty minutes on the clock Griff rung in the changes, a complete front row swap saw Ross Davies, Jack Bergmanas and Richard List enter the fray as well as Phil Eggleshaw who made an immediate impact breaking down the left wing and handing on to Tyson Lewis who battled his way through a couple of would be tacklers to score. Following the try Clive introduced four trialists into the game including; Jack Maplestone, Tomasi Tanumi, Sam Wilson and Jamie Guy who had kicked the winning penalty for Doncaster Phoenix earlier in the day. All slotted in seamlessly and did no harm to their chances of joining the Club on a more permanent basis. With an hour on the clock Will Foden made his Castle Park debut as he replaced Latu Makaafi.

The next score from the saw Tanumi produce a fine piece of handling to create space for winger Sam Wilson, he showed his turn of pace and raced away in the corner. Shortly after Flockhart got his second of the afternoon when he capitalised on a line break from Clark.

The replacement Knights front row looked very powerful against tiring legs and a couple of turnover scrum were turned in to points. Following one scrum against the head, Jamie Guy carried forward well before handing on to Bulumakau who had the Castle Park crowd on their feet with an impressive combination of speed and footwork, scoring in the corner.

The Knights ran riot in the final fifteen minutes of the game and further scores came from Eggleshaw, Clark and Bulumakau completed his hat-trick, taking the final score to 76-5.

For the Knights there were impressive displays across the park, encouragingly the line out and scrum already look very solid and once again, with the exception of one interception try, the defenses held firm.

Next Knights game Friday August 29th versus Leicester Tigers.

Match Statistics

Knights XV 15) Dougie Flockhart, 14) Andrew Bulumakau, 13) Mat Clark, 12) Bevon Armitage, 11) Tyson Lewis, 10) Jamie Lennard, 9) Chris Hallam. 1)Tom Davies, 2) Ben Hunter, 3) Colin Quigley, 4) Matt Challinor, 5) Tyler Hotson, 6) Latu Makaafi, 7) Michael Hills, 8) Alex Shaw.

Replacements; 16 Richard List, 17 Jack Bergmanas, 18 Ross Davies, 19 Phil Eggleshaw, 20 Jack Maplestone(trialist), 21 Will Foden, 22 Paul Roberts. In blank jerseys Glen Kenworthy, Jamie Guy (trialist), Sam Wilson (trialist), Tomasi Tanumi (trialist). (All used)

Tries: Penalty Try 5’, Dougie Flockhart 11’ & 61’, Chris Hallam 21’, Matt Challinor 43’ Andrew Bulumakau 45’, 68’ & 75’, Tyson Lewis 53’, Sam Wilson 58’, Phil Eggleshaw 72’, Mat Clark 80’

Conv: DougieFlockhart; 5’, 11’, 21’, 42’ & 45’. Paul Roberts 61’. Jamie Guy 68’ & 75’

Pen:

Sin Bin Mat Clark

Swansea XV 15) Nick Thomas, 14) Wayne Price, 13) Liam Gadd, 12) Dai Watts, 11) Jedd Evans, 10) Jack Wilson, 9) Scott Maynard. 1) Steve John, 2) Paul John, 3) Dan Kenny, 4) Ed Morris, 5) Adam Scanlon, 6) Jon Vaughan, 7) Mike Scully, 8) Tudor Hughes.

Replacements; 16) Ollie Young 17) Morgan Tristian, 18) Luke Myatt, 19) George Jiri 21) Matthew Llewelyn, 22) Jim Thomas, 23) Andrew Claypole, 24) Nicky Harwood, 25) Adam Davies, 26) Marc Bennet. (All used)

Tries: Nick Thomas 49’

Conv:

Pen:

Sin Bin

Attendance: 780