Doncaster Knights: Confident Cowell hopes to find X-factor in cup clash

The England 7s international had played a number of games for the Championship side when available last season and fitted in well and was more than happy to agree to the deal.

'I am happy to be here for the full season because it makes me feel more part of the team,' said Cowell, who has also represented England at U18,19 and U20 level in the 15-man game.

Cowell stood in for fans' favourite Paul Jarvis last season when he spent several long spells on the side-lines with career-threatening hamstring injuries.

Despite having big boots to fill Cowell fitted in like a cog in a well-oiled machine.

'I like to attack when I've got the ball so I'm a very similar player to Jarv in that respect,' he said.

Like Jarvis, who initially made his name as a wing, Cowell can also operate on the flank.

But, like Jarvis, he prefers to play in the No 15 shirt these days.

'I would say that full-back is my better position,' he said.

Underlining his versatility Cowell has stood in at fly-half on the odd occasion for Knights this season,

'I'm not a natural fly-half, and it's not my best position, but I was happy to play there to help last month to help the team out,' he said. 'It's a tough position to play because there is a lot of responsibility but I tried to be a bit of a play-maker.

After being rested as part of the club's squad rotation during the Championship Cup campaign in the second of the two games against Yorkshire Carnegie, Cowell was back in action in last weekend's narrow defeat in the return against Coventry at Butts Park Arena where he caught the eye with a long-range try and several try-saving tackles.

He is hoping that he did enough to retain his place in the side to entertain Nottingham on Saturday in a game where victory would secure Knights their place in the quarter-finals.

'Even though we've been rotating the squad to give some players a bit of a rest and working on new ideas and partnerships we are not in this competition just to go through the motions and we went into the group phase wanting to qualify for the knock-out stages and go on and win it. We've put out a team every week which we felt was good enough to win the game.

'When everyone is fit and available we've got a very good squad and there is very little between a lot of the players. We know that from the training sessions when we swop around. Everyone is just as capable as the others in their position of delivering on a weekend which is good for competition.

'We won our first two games in the cup but we've now lost our last three and we certainly need to beat Notts this weekend not only to book our place in the last eight but also to give us some momentum going into the league game against Carnegie a fortnight on Saturday.

'We've not made the start to the league season that he had hoped to do and as a result we've given ourselves a lot to do when the league season starts again. But there is still over half of the season to go so there is plenty of time to start climbing the table and, hopefully, do well in the cup.'