Knights Secure Less Than Pretty Result at Athletic Ground for Second Cup Win
16th September 2023
The Knights returned to Doncaster this evening with a win on the books having scored a late try to secure a 22-24 win over London Scottish at the Richmond Athletic Ground in Round 2 of the Premiership Rugby Cup.
It was by no means a clean game, errors-wise, and the majority of the time was spent with the two sides turfing it out in the middle third of the field.
However, Donny seemed to have the grit to scrounge out the win as Steve Boden explained post-match his pride at the way in which his players stuck together to secure the win for one another.
The Knights were the first on the board today. Clean work from the forwards at the lineout fed ball to Ollie Fox who backed himself for the first carry. The scrum half tipped the ball off to Jack Metcalfe who released Connor Edwards with the pass to run in the try with clean air in front of him.
Billy McBryde’s conversion gave the travelling side the full set of points on the board.
The hosts soon responded. Using their maul to creep to the Knights’ 5m line, they peeled off the back to feed their backs. Ben Waghorn carried through a harsh tackle from Edwards to stretch an arm out and place the ball down over the line with former Knight, Alec Lloyd-Seed then adding the extras.
Another came for the Londoners before half time. Big tackles from the Knights in defence of the width of their 22 were commendable but Lloyd-Seed spotted a soft shoulder and went himself through the gap to run in the try underneath the posts.
His conversion attempt was charged down by Edwards, and so the half-time scoreline read 12-7 in the hosts’ favour.
Scottish came out the blocks well at the beginning of the second half. Cameron Anderson broke with ball in hand but and ankle tap tackle forced him to juggle the ball. Recovering well, a combination of passes between Will Trenholm, Robbie McCallum and Waghorn put the centre in on the far wing for his second score of the day.
The Knights responded almost immediately. Working their way quickly into the hosts’ 22, a maul for the line rumbled over with hooker Harri Morris, on his first start for the Knights, emerging from the bottom of the pile of rubble as the try-scorer.
McBryde added the extras to bring the Knights within 3 points.
Scottish pulled away one last time on 52 minutes played. The Knights held up the short, brusing carries well in tight space on their line. However, Lloyd-Seed saw the option of a chip over the defensive line. Metcalf could only get a fingertip to it as Will Brown took it out the air in front of the winger to cross for a try in the corner.
Replacement Harry Wilson made a big impact for the Knights today, not least by scoring a try on the hour mark. There was a calmness to the Knights as they elected to pick-and-go on the Scottish line. Getting them within good range, it wasn’t long before the back-rower crashed the ball down for the try.
Relatively chaotic play ensued following the third Donny score as both sides looked for dominance but were hampered by handling errors and penalties at set piece and scrum.
However, with just 4 minutes remaining on the clock, Wilson stormed his way through a tackle, shrugging off another to keep his long stride going for a break with ball in hand. Adam Hopkinson, his supporting runner who took the pass, was brought down just inches short.
Luckily, the ball popped out of the ruck and Will Metcalfe dove on top of it over the line for the Knights score which took them ahead of the hosts.
Despite a last-ditch attempt at an intense comeback in the bottom corner from Scottish, the Knights used pure doggedness to claim a turnover followed by a penalty – thus allowing them to nudge the ball into touch to bring the day to an end with a bonus point win on the road.
Scottish XV | 15 Cameron Anderson; 14 Noah Ferdinand, 13 Ben Waghorn, 12 Robbie McCallum, 11 Will Brown; 10 Alec Lloyd-Seed, 9 Stephen Kerins; 1 Will Prior, 2 Austin Wallis, 3 Rhys Charalambous, 4 Zach Carr, 5 Jonny Green, 6 Ioan Rhys Davies, 7 Jack Ingall, 8 Will Trenholm.
Replacements | 16 Toby Tyson, 17 George Cave, 18 Ashley Challenger, 19 Graham Geldenhuys, 20 Silas Pill, 21 Dan Nutton, 22 Billy Wara, 23 Elliot Haydon.
Tries: Waghorn 2, Lloyd-Seed, Brown
Conv: Lloyd-Seed
Knights XV | 15 AJ Cant; 14 Jack Metcalf, 13 Harry Davey, 12 Connor Edwards, 11 George Simpson; 10 Billy McBryde, 9 Ollie Fox; 1 Harrison Courtney, 2 Harri Morris, 3 Corrie Barrett, 4 Evan Mintern, 5 Ehize Ehizode, 6 Fyn Brown, 7 Archie Smeaton, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor.
Replacements | 16 Archie Upton, 17 Conor Davidson, 18 Karl Garside, 19 Adam Hopkinson, 20 Rhys Tait, 21 Will Metcalfe, 22 Tom Parkin, 23 Harry Wilson.
Tries: Edwards, Morris, Wilson, Metcalfe
Conv: McBryde 2
Referee: Harry Walbaum
