Good Knight Donny?

Good Ol' Boy!
By Nat Hawthorne
March 5 2009

This Saturday sees Carnegie take on in-form Doncaster Knights at their Castle Park ground. The last time Leeds played at Doncaster they registered a 30-16 win in the promotion winning 2006/2007 season.

Both teams have witnessed much change since that season with numerous personnel coming and going at the two clubs. In fact, only eight players who faced Leeds Carnegie at Castle Park last time, remain in the current squad. This is because Knights Director of Rugby, Lynn Howells is trying to lower the age of the Doncaster squad whilst keeping experience amongst the ranks.

Donny, who lie in 4^th position in the National Division One table, will surely need this experience when they come up against a strong Leeds side who have won 23 games out of 23 and sit at the summit. The Knights, who have 75 points and a game in hand over Bedford who lye in third, are 33 points behind Leeds on 108.

At Headingley Carnegie Stadium, the Knights denied Leeds the bonus point and were the first team in three games to stop the Carnegie men from racking up 50 plus points. Two tries from Leigh Hinton and one from Rob Rawlinson along with 13 points from Jason Strange was enough to seal a 28-13 win back in November. Since then, however, Doncaster have undoubtedly improved and will want to be the first team to take the scalp of the league leaders.

There are some impressive players and some recognisable faces amongst the Doncaster squad. Watch out for highly thought of Tongan centre Hudson Tonga’Uiha while the emergence of fly half Jamie Lennard has been a welcome bonus at Castle Park. Staying in the backs, Chris Hughes has impressed since moving from Headingley where chances were limited for him in the Guinness Premiership.

In the forwards there is plenty of experience in the forms of Ngalu Tau, Glen Kenworthy and Michael Cusack, the latter having enjoyed numerous seasons with Leeds after having progressed through the Academy set-up.

Buoyed from the narrow 26-24 cup win against Birmingham and Solihull, Leeds will be favourites going into the Yorkshire derby. Wanting to make more day light between themselves and nearest rivals Exeter, Messrs Key and Back will surely put out a strong side. Carnegie have a relatively fully fit squad with the exception of Hendre Fourie and Juan Gomez, so we will surely see some big names on the team sheet with the likes of Tom Biggs, Leigh Hinton and Kearnen Myall all in contention.

Whatever the outcome I’m sure it will be a very enjoyable game of top quality rugby as Leeds look to take another step towards the Premiership.