Doncaster Knights set for a pre-season, renewed rivalry against Nottingham, Castle Park Doncaster, 3pm KO.
A week after travelling to Kingston Park to play Newcastle Red Bulls and losing 53-31, the Knights welcome Nottingham Rugby to Castle Park for a second pre-season friendly. This leaves a fortnight before Champ action against the Cornish Pirates at Mennaye Field in Penzance.
The scoreline v the Red Bulls didn’t mirror the majority of the game. The Red Bulls scored two tries late in the last ten minutes of the game to make a 41-26 losing score to a seemingly much worse 53-26 at the end. Newcastle’s major advantage was having two teams available to allow players to rest and ‘fresh legs’ to replace them. The Red Bulls fielded 16 replacements! An encouraging scoreline against a much dearer and numerically larger squad.
On Saturday 29th August Nottingham were due to play Rosslyn Park from National 1 but Park cancelled the fixture with two days’ notice because they were unable to field a team. Hopefully the Knights have begun to gel after playing Newcastle Red Bulls but Nottingham must use this friendly to begin that process.
Pre-season progresses, which means it's time to continue increasing the optimism and start convincing ourselves this is the year it all clicks from game one. Next up on the radar: Nottingham. Old rivals, familiar frustrations, and honestly, a fixture I've been looking forward to since the final whistle went on last season but this time let’s keep the try-scoring but reduce their try-scoring. How often have the Archers left Castle Park the losing team but scoring two league points after scoring four tries and finishing within seven points?!! It’s time to test the new team with the new Director of Rugby (DoR) Dean Richards, Carl Hogg and Alan Dickens as the new coaching team. Still backed up by Sir Ian McGeechan
Pre-season always has that nervous excitement, doesn't it? And when the fixture list throws up Nottingham, you know it's not just another run-out. This is personal.
Let's not forget how we left things. Doncaster finished a frustrating season in the Championship on a high note at Castle Park with their fourth consecutive league win, and it came against these very Archers. Four tries in the first half — two from scrum-half Alex Dolly, one each for Ben Chapman and Connor Edwards — were followed by another four in the second half, capping off a 54-45 thriller that showed exactly what this squad is capable of when it clicks.
That's the frustrating part about last season. Doncaster's talented players had shown they could beat the likes of Worcester, Coventry, Cornish Pirates, Bedford and Nottingham, but too many soft performances against sides we should be putting away cost us a higher finish. Pre-season is where you fix that.
There's real intrigue in this one too. Fly half Morgan Bunting is back at the club after previous spells at Rotherham and Nottingham, so he'll know exactly what to expect from the Archers' shape as will the Olowofela twins. With the club moving to part-time professionalism and around ten new faces set to join a squad of roughly 40 players when pre-season begins, there's a genuinely different feel around Castle Park this summer — this isn't just the same group running through the motions.
Nottingham always bring physicality and a strong set-piece, after a full campaign against them we know their patterns well. For us, this is about building combinations, testing the new signings, and carrying that end-of-season momentum straight into the new campaign.
The Knights will look to expand on their impressive debut, cut down the error count (unsurprising for a first game), which they had started to do as the game progressed. They want to improve their consistency and not rely on two impressive but possibly fortunate interceptions. The Archers are up next this pre-season – bring the support and help the Knights start the season strong!
Come On You Knights - let's see lets progress the form demonstrated against Newcastle Bulls.
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…