Doncaster Knights must contend with '˜wounded animal' in second leg - Challinor

Doncaster Knights are braced for a fight to the death in Sunday's Championship play-off semi-final second leg tie against Yorkshire Carnegie at Castle Park (2.30pm).
Knights club captain Matt Challinor (third from left) enjoys last weekends win. Photo: John AshtonKnights club captain Matt Challinor (third from left) enjoys last weekends win. Photo: John Ashton
Knights club captain Matt Challinor (third from left) enjoys last weekends win. Photo: John Ashton

“They’ll be like a wounded animal and I’m expecting them to give it a real go,” warned club captain Matt Challinor, whose side won the first leg 30-17 last weekend.

“They caused us a few problems when they started to throw the ball about like a basketball late on but I don’t think they’ll play that way – at least not at the start - on Sunday. I think they’ll try and rectify the problems they had at the set-piece.

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“To be fair they’ve got a very good pack with a lot of experience and No 8 Ryan Burrows always seems to step up to the plate whenever we play them.

“So for us to not only contain but to get on top of them speaks volumes for how well we played last weekend and we were probably a little disappointed with the final score.

“We’ve shown all season that we’ve got a good pack and we’ve also got two big centres and I don’t think they are many teams in this league who are as physical as we are in both defence and attack.”

He added “We’ve got to forget the 13-point cushion and treat it just as another derby game and go out there on the day and perform like we can. If we do that we’ll fancy our chances.”

Knights, who are expecting their biggest crowd of the season, will lack injured wing Andy Bulumakau.