Knights sent to Coventry chasing win

It will be newly-appointed director of rugby, Lynn Howells, first game in charge - although he won’t be seeing Coventry for the first time.

Along with backs’ coach Justin Bishop, the Welshman travelled down to the Butts Park Arena last weekend to watch them overcome Ebbw Vale with a strong second-half performance in their final pre-season friendly.

The Knights did the double over Coventry last season with a 29-13 home win followed by a 24-14 win at the Butts Park Arena, where winger Donovan Van Vuuren scored a hat-trick.

Traditionally hard to beat on their home turf, Coventry have had a high player turnover of pkayers during the summer with no fewer than eleven of last year’s squad departing and fifteen new faces arriving.

Howells will be looking to his charges to exploit any weaknesses in the Coventry line-up as a result of the influx of new players.

The Doncaster starting line-up includes only two of the new signings, - Bishop and on-loan French scrum-half Antoine Nicoud – with Scott Gray and Sean Tomes on the bench. Scott Young and Mark Soden will travel with the team as reserves on the day.

Wes Davies gets the nod at full-back, and the Cerith Rees and Nicoud half-back partnership that so impressed in the second half at Leeds last Sunday, gets a chance to develop further.

Those not starting at Coventry will feature in a strong “A” team on Monday night at Castle Park when Northampton Saints are the visitors. Kick-off is 7.30pm.

n Knights: W Davies, Bailey, Hunt, Davey, Bishop, Rees, Nicoud, Bunting, S Boden, Tau, Griffiths, Kenworthy, Cook, Grainger, Wilson. Bench: List, Phillips, Tomes, Gray, Scully, Woodrow. Reserves: Young, Soden.