“Winning is a habit” – Alex Dolly previews Caldy.
13th February 2025
Alex Dolly previews the final group stage of the Premiership Cup as Doncaster Knights host Caldy at Castle Park.
The Knights are heading into the weekend off the back of a historic win against Premiership Team, Sale Sharks. Dolly began by explaining how that has impacted the squad:
“It was massive. Obviously we spoke all last week about creating history and trying to beat a Premiership team. We went there and I think, in certain parts we weren’t at our best but it was the scramble and the fight we showed, even at the end to get the job done on the 80th minute, where we’ve been this year. A couple of those games have gone the other way where we’ve actually been on the other end.”
So I think it was really important it brings loads of confidence in, camp is obviously much happier. So hopefully we can bring the same intensity this weekend.”
Doncaster Knights have beaten Caldy twice this season already, once in the Championship and once in the Premiership Cup. Dolly said: “Yeah we’ve played them twice already and obviously reviewed their stuff. They’ve got a really good set piece maul, I think they scored a couple up in Newcastle last week and they’ve threatened us before with that, so we’re fully aware of what we need to do there to stop that.”
They can move the ball as well, as they’ve proven against Nottingham, so we’ve got to be on it and disciplines gonna be a massive thing. That’s something we’ve gone after this week.”
The scrum half explained the key takeaways from the Sale game, and how they plan to implement them against Caldy:
“It was a scramble, not everything was perfect but we had the fight. Like when Jonsey [Joe Jones] was yellow carded early doors and we didn’t concede. Things like that, and just actually turning pressure into points, it’s something we haven’t done since Hartpury so it was really pleasing on that side of things.”
The Knights could still move on to the quarter finals, depending on the result in both out game, and Newcastle v Sale. But Dolly said “we are not really thinking about it. The mathematical equation will sort itself out so we need to go out there and put our best performance in. We’re trying to back up what we did last week and show that consistency so for us it’s just about going out there and putting the best performance in. Let the result take care of itself and then from there we just deal with what we get.”
He talked about how it is important to end the cup block on a positive note before turning our attention back to the championship. “It’s massive, winning is a habit so if we can take this win on the weekend or we can put a performance in that gets us a win, we’ve then got that three, four week block where camps in a good place, morale is high and we go flying into Ealing when we return.”
With the Knights returning to Castle Park this week, Dolly explained the importance of the home crowd: “It’s just hugely important, just hearing them chanting and doing what they do. Especially in the good moments but also the moments where we’re under pressure and we need that little extra lift to get us through something and turn that momentum in a game so they are massively important for us and we do appreciate when we can hear them.”
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