Doncaster Knights: '˜We're low on confidence and don't know why' says coach after Jersey defeat

Doncaster Knights find themselves in the bottom three of the Greene King IPA Championship after slumping to a third successive defeat.
Doncaster Knights v Jersey Reds: Knights Cameron Cowell is sent flyingDoncaster Knights v Jersey Reds: Knights Cameron Cowell is sent flying
Doncaster Knights v Jersey Reds: Knights Cameron Cowell is sent flying

Jersey ran in seven tries to claim a 47-22 win at Castle Park on Saturday and leave the Doncaster coaching staff searching for answers ahead of testing games against Bedford and London Irish.

'Jersey are a changed team in how they play this season and they played well on the day and we were poor,' said head coach Glen Kenworthy. 'We look low on confidence and we are scratching our heads as to why.

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'It was embarrassing to concede that many points at home and I felt sorry for the supporters who pay good money.

'Our preparation was disrupted with players, some of whom didn't play today, being sent home with a bug at the start of the week but that's no excuse for how we played.

'Some of the players are not taking on board what we are showing them in training with the knock-on effect that they are not delivering on the pitch.

'That has got to change and both we as coaches and the boys need to take a good look at ourselves.

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'We ran options during the week where we felt we'd find space but on the day they slowed us down and forced us to play a way we didn't want to play.

'We wanted them to be more direct in the first half but they weren't and we lost shape after two or three phases.

'We came in trailing 19-7 at half-time and we laid the law down to them during the interval to be honest and just tried to give them a jolt. But they capitalised on a handling mistake to increase their lead.

'We tried to change things around in the second half and play with a bit more shape but when we did our skill levels often let us down though we did score a couple of good tries.

'It would have been nice to get something out of the game and we might have done but for the late disallowed try but it was a forward pass.'