Doncaster Knights 44 Cornish Pirates 12: Joe Margetts hat-trick gives Knights sniff of Champ Rugby play-offs
IT has been a long time coming, but it was well worth the wait.
Doncaster Knights produced, by far, their best performance of the season so far in what has been a flat campaign.
However, at Castle Park, this sparkling display which beat Pirates by seven tries to two revealed the squad’s full potential in attack and defence and served as perfect preparation for this Saturday’s challenge at Sixways against Worcester, third in the league.
Following this much-needed win, in which centre Joe Margetts scored his first hat-trick at this level and winger Zach Kerr touched down twice, as did hooker and captain Fred Davies, Doncaster have moved up to 10th in the league on 36 points, and may still be in with a chance of reaching the top six and, therefore, qualifying for the play-offs.
The Knights are now 12 points behind sixth-placed Coventry but, in order to qualify, replicating the non-stop commitment shown against the Pirates when they face Worcester, Bedford, Chinnor and leaders Ealing later this month is essential.
What was to develop into an outstanding effort did not start promisingly; indeed Doncaster were probably half asleep at the kick-off which set up a dramatic try after only 16 seconds for Pirates’ second row Josh King, converted for a 7-0 lead.
From then on, though, Doncaster took control and while the Pirates enjoyed plenty of ball and threatened the Doncaster line on numerous occasions, the Knights’ defence was solid throughout.
The recovery was led by Kerr on three minutes and continued by Margetts as they established a half time lead of 13-7.
This recovery gathered strength during a second half which saw some excellent tries, the best coming on 57 minutes as the Pirates threatened Doncaster’s line.
Top class defending turned the ball over, fly-half Russell Bennett, near his posts, launched a thrilling attack, kicked across field and then the lose ball was collected by Margetts who completed his hat-trick during a move that started 100 metres away.
Doncaster were now in complete command and in front 30-7. Additional tries by Davies, following effective work by his forwards among whom flanker East Timor Viliamu stood out for 80 minutes, ensured Darren Fearn’s (inset) team their fifth win in 15 league matches.
“I’m more happy for the boys than for myself,” explained Margetts, scoring on 26, 52 and 57 minutes.
“We’ve got a decent win and five points at home. We played with lots of energy and we had a good feeling coming into this game.
“The physicality of the forwards helped us in defence and now we’re focussed on gaining some momentum from this win.”
What delighted Kerr – who scored in the third and then the 43rd minute – was the side’s total commitment.
“ We’ve huffed and puffed in the last two games, but we put it together in attack and defence for 80 minutes against Pirates who are a big, physical team, but we dominated them.”