Doncaster Knights: Championship's leading try scorer Tyson Lewis reflects on season so far

There have been few better sights in recent years at Castle Park than jet-heeled wing Tyson Lewis in full flight for Doncaster Knights.
Tyson LewisTyson Lewis
Tyson Lewis

Having scored the fastest try in the club’s history several years ago, Lewis is on course to become the first Doncaster player to top the Championship try-scoring chart.

“It’s one of those accolades that you would look back on at the end of the season if it happened so it would be nice,” said Lewis, who currently tops the list with ten.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“As a wing you always want to score tries but it’s not the be-all-and-end-all as long as the team is scoring tries.

“I’ve just tried to make sure that I recreate the work done in training and do whatever the coaching staff want from me.

“I’m happy to come off my wing looking for the ball and we identify certain weaknesses in teams which gives the wingers chance to come inside and work off the fly-half or the 12 whatever the case may be.

“As with any wing I always enjoy scoring the long-range tries but equally you get the same number of points from scoring from five metres out.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Lewis was one of a number of regulars to sit out Saturday’s B&I Cup defeat against Munster A at Castle Park.

“It was tough to watch but the lads didn’t really go out there and play the way we wanted to play and to be fair to Munster they defended really well and tested us in attack,” he said.

“You either try to play through a defence or try and play around it. We tried to play around it at the weekend and we came up short and we probably needed to be a bit more direct and a bit more confrontational down the middle and then try and play around them.

“It’s a tough ask to come into a side when you are not starting every week and not having that game-time, but credit to Sam Edgerley who was in my place. He went out there and played well. He’s a very quick lad as he showed when scoring what was a great try.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It would have been nice to keep the bandwagon rolling after ending the year with two wins, but it is only a hiccup and our season won’t be defined by how we do against Munster: we’ll be judged on how we do in the league.

“We know we haven’t always played to our full potential in the league and we’ve questioned ourselves at times, but we are still in a play-off place which is where we wanted to be at this stage of the season.

“I don’t think the weight of outside expectations has affected us as we hold ourselves in quite high esteem inside the changing room. The standards we set ourselves are quite high and we always want to perform to our best in every game, though as with any team that doesn’t always happen.”