Doncaster Knights: Clive Griffiths pulls no punches following Pirates defeat

Doncaster Knights boss Clive Griffiths won't be pulling his punches when he and his fellow coaches review Sunday's Championship defeat against Cornish Pirates today.
Clive GriffithsClive Griffiths
Clive Griffiths

The Welshman is expected to be particularly critical of Knights’ defensive efforts in the 46-29 defeat.

“It is simply not acceptable that a visiting team comes here and scores six tries against us,” he told The Star yesterday.

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“Especially when we went into the game with the best defensive record in the Championship this season.

“It’s a concern because we had taken our defensive work up another level in training during the week.”

Griffiths, as was returning backs and skills coach Paul Cooke, was also unhappy with some of the attacking play prior to their late flourish.

“We definitely missed the injured Will Owen who was man-of-the-match in the win at Bristol,” he said.

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“We had a great opportunity to go 7-0 up early on from a move that we’d worked on in training after spotting a weakness in their defence but Lloyd Hayes dropped the ball after going through the hole,” he said.

“I’m not saying that we would have gone on to win the game had he scored but it could have made a big difference.

“We knew what they would bring to the table and we’d prepared for it but on the day we didn’t deliver.

“It was one of those games where everyone’s weaknesses were exposed.”