The money-can’t-buy ingredients key to Doncaster Knights’ success

Director of rugby Steve Boden says last season’s success – Knights finished second behind Ealing Trailfinders in the Championship – was built on ‘all the stuff that’s uncoachable’, regardless of how big one’s cheque book might be.

In short: culture and character.

"We enjoy turning up to work every day, we work really hard and care about each other,” he explains.

"That’s probably why we are a little big tighter. A big part of our recruitment involves looking at people who are not that well-known or thought about, but we still see something in them.”

That can help to create something greater than the sum of its parts, which is invaluable when your divisional rivals are outspending you several times over.

"Ealing have probably spent six or seven times the amount of money we spent on our squad,” adds Boden, who is preparing for his second full season in charge.

"We overachieved last year and we don’t want to be victims of that success.

"We have got to make sure we don’t rest on our laurels and show the same hunger and desire.”

Central to that will, of course, be character and culture.

"When I came back to the club it was a huge area of concern,” says Boden, a Knights player of seven years between 2005 and 2012.

"We have got a saying: ‘good people usually make half-decent rugby players’. Character first and foremost is the most important thing to us.”

Doncaster begin the 2022/23 campaign away to big-spending Ealing on Saturday, having beaten them twice last term.

Boden won’t be drawn on his expectations for the season, however.

"We will keep our feet well and truly on the floor and respect the challenges ahead,” he adds diplomatically.

"We have got a bit more pace in the side this year, we want to play the game a bit quicker.”

A successful campaign might also end in a long-awaited promotion, should the club be successful in the event of another application.

They are currently awaiting planning permission to increase the capacity of Castle Park to fit within the Gallagher Premiership’s rules.

Boden adds: "If the opportunity came and we had a successful season, would we embrace it? Yes we would.”