Preview: Nottingham Rugby v Doncaster Knights

The first game of the second half of the season sees seventh-placed Knights travel to The Bay to play fourth-placed Nottingham under their Friday nights lights. The teams met at Castle Park just before the end of September last year for our third game and Nottingham beat the Knights at their Castle 14-30. It was a bonus-point win for the Archers as they scored four tries to our brace. Their hooker Harry Clayton scored first then left wing Harry Graham scored a brace, rounded off by lock Tom Manz.

Last time out the Knights shoulda/woulda/coulda beat Coventry if either of the dying minute’s conversion or a penalty kick had bisected the uprights but it wasn’t to be as both kicks were from wide out. Cov were second in the Championship so to have recorded a losing bonus point and be so close to winning is high praise to the boys.

Nottingham were beaten 27-22 at The Wirral to twelfth-placed Caldy. Caldy do seem to be improving as their display at Castle Park last November demonstrated. There’s a chance that they will rise above Cambridge on Saturday. Possibly rise to tenth if Ampthill lose without scoring a league point.

Caldy beat Nottingham four tries to three and the Archer’s tries were scored by prop Kai Owen, centre Kegan Christian-Goss and flanker Nathan Tweedy. Fly half Matthew Arden converted two and scored a penalty kick. The Archers will want to bounce back from that defeat by doing the double over their nearest rivals, the Knights.

Nottingham have scored the fifth-highest number of try-bonus points and with 297 points, they have scored the fourth-highest number of points, 22 more than the Knights. More impressively only Ealing Trailfinders have conceded fewer points than Nottingham; the Archers have conceded 24 fewer points than the Knights. That makes the overall points scored/conceded difference to 46 (just almost 4.2/game) better than the Knights. Offence and defence of the try line is their forte, the Archers have scored 40 tries, second to Trailfinders. They have conceded 29 tries, third to Pirates and Trailfinders. The Knights have scored four fewer and conceded one more, so not ‘a million miles away’.

Individually Archer fly half Natthew Arden is the Championship’s seventh highest points-scorer but our own Russell Bennett is fifth. The Knights’s Jordan’s twin brother, Nottingham winger Ryan Olowofela is their highest try-scorer and tenth in the Championship but his twin, our own winger Jordan Olowofela tops the try-scoring list after scoring more than twice as many as his twin, Ryan.

Friday 24th January

Bedford Blues (2) v Coventry (3)

Nottingham (4) v Doncaster Knights (7)

Saturday 25th January

Cambridge (11) v Caldy (12)

Chinnor (9) v Ampthill (10)

Ealing Trailfinders (1) v Cornish Pirates (6)

London Scottish (8) v Hartpury University (5)

It is a weekend when second plays third, eleventh play twelfth & ninth plays tenth. However, Ampthill (10) can’t overtake Chinnor (9) even if they win with a bonus point, unless they score 160 more points than Chinnor do!!

A Knights win should allow us to leapfrog the Pirates to sixth if they don’t score a league point against Trailfinders but a bonus point win would be more certain. A bonus point win could take us to fourth if the Scottish beat Hartpury and our aggregate score is 17 better than Hartpury’s. We must score 46 more points than Nottingham as well as winning with a bonus point to overtake them.

A Knighs defeat would only see the Scottish overtake us if they won with a bonus point plus we scored no league points.