Doncaster Knights’ academy elevated three leagues in BUCS

The Knights youngsters recently won the Northern 4B BUCS Division to secure promotion for the second consecutive season.

They won all nine games and ran up some high scores. But their reputation has led to several postponements over the last couple of years – with clearly inferior opponents pulling out of fixtures.

Doncaster will play in the Northern 1A BUCS Division next season – three divisions below Super Rugby.

They were independently assessed in two one-off games against Hull University and Russian Premier side Krasny Kar.

“It is a huge weight off our shoulders with the decision to go up the leagues,” said head coach and Knights winger Tyson Lewis.

“We are excited to test the waters in that league.

“Obviously playing Hull’s first team gave us an indicator. We did win that but it was probably the first time in the season that we’d had a real test and a team go at us and put us under pressure.

“If we can have more games like that it is going to be a bigger challenge for the boys and they’ll learn a lot more from playing games and then doing reviews.”

He added: “Our ambitions won’t change even though we are in a higher league and by nature we are competitive individuals but a humble group. We will go out to win every game and win the league. 

“It has been a massive effort and the hard work behind the scenes between the Knights and the college and I am grateful to everyone that has played a part to help us fulfil this dream and hopefully come September we can push on.”

Sam Jones, Sam Pocklington and Will Holling have all progressed from the academy to Knights’ first team squad.