London Welsh v Doncaster - Match Preview

It seems that no pre- or post-match quote from players and coaches is complete without making reference to the ‘competitiveness’ of the Championship. The fact that Doncaster, following three consecutive top five finishes, could take six games to pick up their first point and yet complete back-to-back wins with last week’s success over Bristol, could arguably be taken to be conclusive proof.

This is the Knights’ fifth season at this level, and they represent one of the success stories of league rugby.  Back in 1987-88 they began life a full eight levels beneath Welsh, playing in Yorkshire Two alongside the likes of Ilkley, Old Otliensians and Wath.  Over the course of the next 10 seasons they won five promotions, rising to North One, and losing the inaugural RFU Intermediate Cup final to Thanet Wanderers at Twickenham.  As a consequence, they entered the Tetley Bitter Cup for the first time and reached the fourth round, disposing of Nottingham en route to a 58-8 defeat at the hands of Premiership Richmond. 

Promotion to the National 3 North was secured on the final day of the 1998-99 season with a winner-takes-all 33-3 win over long-time leaders Northern in front of a crowd in excess of 2000, and 18 months later the new clubhouse at Castle Park, build with the help of £1.8m of lottery funding, was officially opened.  After three years – their longest stay at any level of the hierarchy at the time – Donny won promotion to National Two with 25 wins from 26 games: the only blot on the record was a 16-0 defeat at runners-up Dudley Kingswinford.

Up until this point, the Knights had proudly based their success upon locally-grown talent; the Colts had reached four consecutive county finals in the late-80s/ early-90s, and the club currently has the largest ‘minis’ section in Yorkshire, with over 400 members.  However, after a mid-table finish in 2002-03 a decision was taken to draw on experience from outside Yorkshire.  Kingsley Jones was brought in from Worcester as DoR, and after he moved to Sale former Springbok centre Pieter Muller arrived from Cardiff in his stead.  Muller’s team were promoted as Champions alongside Newbury at the end of the 2004-05 season with 23 wins from 26.

Consequently, despite Doncaster being formed 10 years before Welsh, the first meeting of our clubs took place on this same weekend four years ago, a 27-27 draw at ODP in which we also gained a try-bonus point.  Welsh have won the last two encounters at home – 31-16 on the first Sunday of September last year, and 29-3 four months earlier – whereas Donny have triumphed only once in Richmond, 29-8 in September 2007.  However, we’re yet to claim a win at Castle Park, our best result being a 20-20 draw in January 2007.  It’s interesting to note that of the Welsh XV who started the game 14 months ago, only three – Paul Sampson, Aled Thomas and Mike Powell – were in the starting line-up at Moseley last weekend, and only Sampson and Dorian Williams remain from the match 18 months ago.

As mentioned previously, Donny have finished in the top five for the last three seasons, although their final position has worsened marginally year-by-year.  Having finished 10^th of 14 in their first year with 10 wins, they rounded-off a Yorkshire 1-2-3 behind Leeds and Rotherham in 2006-07 with 22 wins and 20 bonus points from 30 games under the guidance of Clive Griffiths.  They dropped to fourth the following season and fifth last term, two extra wins and two draws seeing them finish 14 points and one place clear of the Exiles.

This season, their third under the leadership of former Pontypridd, Cardiff, Celtic Warriors and Edinburgh coach, Lyn Howells, began slowly but now appears to be taking shape.  The sluggish start could be attributed to the loss of key players such as fly-half Jamie Lennard (London Irish), the league’s top scorer last season with 298, winger/ full-back Wes Davies (Pirates) the club’s top try-scorer with 13, and flanker Josh Afu (Newcastle), or the return of backs coach Justin Bishop to Sunbury.  Current top-scorer is former Nottingham fly-half Ally Warnock with 47, followed by new signing James Brooks (ex-Leeds, Wasps and Northampton) on 27.  Warnock, however, has landed 14 of his 16 attempts thus far, giving him a strike-rate of 87.5%; Aled Thomas, the league’s third-highest scorer with 79 points, has struck 28 from 45 (62.2%).