London Welsh v Doncaster - Preview & Lorne Ward Tribute!

Last Friday night's horror show may have occurred on the 1^st rather than the 31^st of October, but it was enough to give the London Welsh supporters nightmares.  And if the visit of an apparently struggling Doncaster gives the impression of being a welcome opportunity to banish that memory, you only have to cast your mind back to their visit to ODP last October to be brought back to a harsh reality.

The Knights began last season with six consecutive defeats, collecting their first point on October 10^th in a 17-14 defeat at home to Coventry.  Yet seven days later they claimed a fine 21-6 win at Plymouth before beating Bristol 26-22 at Castle Park.  When they arrived in Richmond on Hallowe’en, we were suffering something of a hangover after a crushing bonus point home win over one of our top six rivals followed by a demoralising display in the Friday night rain.  Sound familiar…?  That Saturday afternoon Welsh were blown away, a fifth minute try by winger Matt Williams and a second-half penalty try giving the visitors a 20-9 win, their dominance not truly reflected by the scoreline.

This season has been slightly better, as Lynn Howells’ team find themselves occupying the final play-off place after six rounds, level on 12 points with Esher, albeit behind our neighbours by virtue of having won one game fewer.  Their two victories have been at Bristol (26-12) and last weekend’s incredible 46-42 home win over Nottingham, in which they trailled 42-27 with fewer than five minutes remaining.  A converted try by centre Chris Briers in the 77^th minute was followed by an injury-time penalty try, yet there was still time for Donny to knock-on from the restart, turnover the Nottingham ball at the scrum, and work the ball out to former Esher winger Dougie Flockhart, who sprinted over from inside his own half.

As this suggests, Doncaster games this season are rarely dull.  Their six matches have produced 320 points (154 for, 166 against) at an average of over 53 per game, with a total of 33 tries (15 for, 18 against).  Welsh, on the other hand, have conceded only four tries in six games – the best record in the division – and Shaun Renwick’s try for Esher last Friday is the first time that we’ve conceded before the hour mark.  Across the Championship as a whole, almost two thirds of the 179 tries scored (at a rate of five per game) have been scored by backs, with the Welsh backline clearly the most potent in the division, claiming 15 of the club’s 17 touchdowns.  Josh Drauniniu is joint-top try scorer with Worcester’s Miles Benjamin on five, while Liam Gibson is tied with three others – including the aforementioned Matt Williams – on four.

Notwithstanding their poor start to the season, Donny made the promotion play-offs last year, thanks in no small part to a terrific run of four wins in 14 days in February.  Their patchy league form was all the more confusing given their exemplary record in the British & Irish Cup, in which they were the only team to qualify from the pool stages with a maximum return of 25 points from five matches.  The last two games in the first part of the league season were lost, so despite finishing 7^th overall they went into the play-offs with a lack of momentum, perhaps exacerbated by a sense of relief at having avoided the relegation pool for which they’d appeared destined throughout much of the winter.  Although they beat Nottingham home-and-away – something which neither Welsh nor Exeter achieved – they lost the four matches against the top two sides and finished bottom of the pool.  Welsh won both meetings with a try-bonus, and Paul Sampson’s four tries in those two games brought him level with Andy Currier as our most prolific try-scorer in league rugby, with 36.

Another record-breaker in the scarlet jersey this season is the great Lorne Ward.  Mower made his debut in a friendly at Henley in August 2002, his first league appearance coming at Moseley three weeks later.  He scored his first try in the 15-0 win at Plymouth in January 2003, and in his first stint with the club made 57 league appearances, scoring five tries.  He left in the summer of 2005 for The Stoop, where he made 23 appearances – but only seven starts – during Quins’ year in National One, scoring a try in their only defeat of the season, at Exeter.  In the Premiership the following season he only got a couple of runs from the bench, making most of his appearances in the EDF, European Shield and ‘A’ league, before coming ‘home’ to ODP on-loan in January.  Lorne made 11 starts for Welsh that season, but was signed by Bath in the summer, where his experience matched that of his second year at Quins, and after a loan-spell at Toulon (the thinking-man’s Carl Hayman?) he was off to Richmond again – although this time his destination was London Scottish.  But after one season at the Athletic Ground, Mower found his way back to Welsh last summer, making his 100^th appearance for the club in the B&I Cup game with Bedford.  Last Friday night he made his 100^th appearance in league rugby for Welsh when he came off the bench for the final five minutes.  He’s started in 86 of those 100 games – exactly the same record as Steve Millard, alongside whom he made so many appearances.  And if you were to ask him the secret of his longevity at the coalface – he’d tell you it’s Welsh cakes.