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Knights revival coming on apace
London Welsh 9 Doncaster Knights 20
DONCASTER Knights inflicted the first home defeat of the season on London Welsh in a tremendously exciting Championship match where, for the third week running, their aggressive defence won them the game.
However, apart from the first 20 minutes, the Knights always held the upper hand and thoroughly deserved their third victory of the season.
Doncaster's director of rugby, Lynn Howells, made just two changes from the side that had deservedly beaten Bristol the previous weekend.
Steve Boden came in for Steve Lawrie at hooker and skipper whilst, in the backs, young England Sevens flyer Matt Williams made his debut in place of Andy Wright who was struck down by illness.
The plus for the Knights was that skipper and lock Glen Kenworthy, prop Tom Davies and No 8 Chris Planchant all appeared on the bench after recovering from knee injuries.
Knights went ahead after only four minutes when, after a series of rucks just outside the Welsh 22, a delicate grubber kick by fly half Ali Warnock allowed the flying Williams to show his footballing skills to dribble the ball pass the covering defence and score wide out.
Williams first try for the club was converted by a maginificent kick from the touchline by Warnock.
The home side hit back with a penalty by their fly half Aled Thomas and they then put the Knights under intense pressure from a series of scrums on the visitor's line.
When Welsh were awarded another penalty they went for goal which Thomas duly kicked when they would probably have been better placed to have gone for another scrum and the possibility of a penalty try.
This respite gave the Knights the opportunity to regroup and, with veteran prop Tongan Ngalu Ta'u having sorted out the home side's illegal scrummaging, Doncaster had no further problems in this department.
After 20 minutes London Welsh's former England winger Paul Sampson wasted a glorious try-scoring opportunity – knocking on 20 metres out but with the Knights scramble defence rushing across to hunt him down.
Shortly after Williams almost squeezed over in the corner for the Knights and then Kettle was denied a try from a scrum five metres out.
In the third minute of first-half injury time, Thomas missed a long-range penalty meaning that the Knights went into the interval leading 10-6.
Warnock increased his side's lead almost immediately after the restart with a long- range penalty. The Knights pack started to turn the screw on the London Welsh eight.
They were awarded a series of five-metre scrums which the Welsh pack kept collapsing and Premiership referee Greg Garner eventually lost his patience and awarded the Knights a penalty try that Warnock converted.
Winger Williams almost scored again when he was given the ball 50 metres out with a clear run to the line only to be brought back for a marginal, but correctly called, forward pass.
Thomas again cut his side's deficit with his third penalty after 58 minutes and the Knights then put themselves under pressure when replacement prop Tom Davies, playing his first game for six weeks due to a knee injury, was yellow carded after being on the field after only six minutes. London Welsh sensed a chance to get back into the game, but the Knights defence was outstanding.
They were unlucky not to extend their lead when winger Douglas Flockhart just knocked on under pressure after catching a high diagonal kick from Warnock.
As the game went into injury time the Knights were comfortably on top and the final whistle was more of a respite for the home side.
Apart from the spell around the 10-minute mark in the first half, Knights were always on top with the much vaunted London Welsh side struggling to gain any momentum against a tough-tackling Doncaster side.
With Warnock and full-back Steve McColl again pinning their opposition deep in their own half with some very good tactical kicking, the home side were devoid of attacking ideas against a Knights side that, to a man, rarely missed a tackle.
As the second half progressed, Howells was allowed the opportunity to give prop Davies and No 8 Chris Planchant a short amount of much-needed game time and, thankfully, they showed no ill effects from their layoffs.
n Davies, Planchant and other returnees Kenworthy, Anthony Carter and Neil Cochrane, plus unused substitutes Matt D'Arcy, Chris Briers, Steve Lawrie and illness victim Andy Wright, will be in a very strong Doncaster team that plays Gael Force, the third Scottish team in the British and Irish Cup, in a friendly at Castle Park on Monday (kick-off 5.30pm). Entry is free and Castle Park's famous cow pie and beer will be on sale.
London Welsh: Sampson, Shabbo, Starling (Evans 59), Mackay, Claassens (Watson 41), Thomas, Lewis (Runciman 41), Wiiliams (Ward 54), George (Gotting 54), Holford, Corker, Garvey, Mills (Beach 47), Bonner-Evans, Hills. Uused sub: Powell
Doncaster Knights: McColl, Flockhart, Tonga'uiha, Armitage, Williams, Warnock, Hallam, Corsar (Davies 54), Boden, Ta'u (Cusack HT), Griffiths, Townson, Kettle, Boyde (Planchant 70), Grainger. Unused subs: Briers, D'Arcy, Lawrie, Kenworthy.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
