Post by Jamie Crawford on Apr 16, 2019 11:34:41 GMT
Coventry preview sponsored by Porsche Centre Sheffield (www.porschesheffield.co.uk)
Round 21, Castle Park Sat 20th Apr, 2019 - 02:30pm
We’re back at Castle Park, home of Doncaster Knights for the last two games of this season. First up is Coventry who are one place below us in the Championship with equal league points. It would be difficult to find two teams with a more closely matched performance this season.
In a ninth v tenth battle, both teams have lost 12 games over the 20 played but Cov have drawn one that we won. They have also won two more losing bonus points to equal the number of league points scored. The Knights have scored 74 more points than Cov and conceded 51 fewer. The Knights have scored ten tries more than Cov yet both teams have scored five try bonus points. Both sides had conceded the same number of tries after 20 games played.
The Knights beat Coventry by a single point when they met at Castle Park in the Championship Cup last November. Cov got their revenge in the reverse fixture at Butts Park Arena when they beat us by two points.
The bragging rights returned to the Knights when they beat Cov a month later in the Championship by six points at Butts Park Arena. Therefore the loser in each of the three meetings has been within seven points and won a losing bonus point. That obviously means that Cov will want to avenge that home defeat but the Knights want to do the league double over Cov.
After Round 19, Fly Halves Jake Sharp and Will Maisey were the Championship’s ninth and tenth highest points-scorers respectively. Dougie Flockhart was eighth after scoring a point more than Sharp. It’s rare to get two kickers from the same club in the top ten and if one of them had scored all of their kicks, they would be the highest points-scorer.
Hooker Scott Tolmie is their leading try-scorer after touching down seven times. Winger Max Trimble and Prop William Goodrick-Clarke have both scored five tries.
64% of Cov’s tries have been scored by Backs but 62% had also been conceded to Backs.
Don’t forget the four South Sea Island players that moved to Cov from Doncaster last Summer. Two of Coventry’s Back Row are ex-Knights; Latuuu Makaafi and Jack Ram. Ex-Knight Andy Bulamakau is now Wing/Centre for Coventry and his brother Junior is a Wing/Full Back.
Our last outing, the away loss to Carnegie was described as fragmented by Glen Kenworthy in the Yorkshire Post, “…“It was scrappy,” admitted Kenworthy, whose side have slipped to ninth with two Championship games remaining. “It was a horrible match. We had some opportunities there at the end to get something out of the game.
“But we committed just too many errors in opposition red zone.
“It’s one of the few local derbies and you should be up for it but I thought the game as a whole was a bit of an anti-climax if I’m honest...” (Yorkshire Post 06.00, Monday 15th April 2019).
If only the penalty kick was a few cms to the inside of the post, it would have gone over, off the upright and we’d a won a losing bonus point. That would have returned us to eighth in the Championship. Every game is full of ‘if onlys’ and there’s no point looking back unless you can learn from it. Hopefully the Knights have learnt to be more clinical and take it to the game against Coventry.
Next up at Castle Park are the Cornish Pirates who are currently fifth before they welcome sixth-placed Carnegie. Carnegie are just one point below the Pirates. Nottingham are just one point below Carnegie, so it could be all-change after the weekend..
The only other fixture that could affect our ninth position is:
London Scottish (8th, +1) travel to Gillman’s Ground to play Hartpury College (11th)
We can hope that the students pull-off an upset when they attempt to get beyond Richmond’s reach thereby saving being relegated at the end of the season. The students are aware that Richmond must play top-placed London Irish on Friday.
We can’t be caught by Hartpury College (11th) or Richmond (12th) for the rest of the season.
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
Round 21, Castle Park Sat 20th Apr, 2019 - 02:30pm
We’re back at Castle Park, home of Doncaster Knights for the last two games of this season. First up is Coventry who are one place below us in the Championship with equal league points. It would be difficult to find two teams with a more closely matched performance this season.
In a ninth v tenth battle, both teams have lost 12 games over the 20 played but Cov have drawn one that we won. They have also won two more losing bonus points to equal the number of league points scored. The Knights have scored 74 more points than Cov and conceded 51 fewer. The Knights have scored ten tries more than Cov yet both teams have scored five try bonus points. Both sides had conceded the same number of tries after 20 games played.
The Knights beat Coventry by a single point when they met at Castle Park in the Championship Cup last November. Cov got their revenge in the reverse fixture at Butts Park Arena when they beat us by two points.
The bragging rights returned to the Knights when they beat Cov a month later in the Championship by six points at Butts Park Arena. Therefore the loser in each of the three meetings has been within seven points and won a losing bonus point. That obviously means that Cov will want to avenge that home defeat but the Knights want to do the league double over Cov.
After Round 19, Fly Halves Jake Sharp and Will Maisey were the Championship’s ninth and tenth highest points-scorers respectively. Dougie Flockhart was eighth after scoring a point more than Sharp. It’s rare to get two kickers from the same club in the top ten and if one of them had scored all of their kicks, they would be the highest points-scorer.
Hooker Scott Tolmie is their leading try-scorer after touching down seven times. Winger Max Trimble and Prop William Goodrick-Clarke have both scored five tries.
64% of Cov’s tries have been scored by Backs but 62% had also been conceded to Backs.
Don’t forget the four South Sea Island players that moved to Cov from Doncaster last Summer. Two of Coventry’s Back Row are ex-Knights; Latuuu Makaafi and Jack Ram. Ex-Knight Andy Bulamakau is now Wing/Centre for Coventry and his brother Junior is a Wing/Full Back.
Our last outing, the away loss to Carnegie was described as fragmented by Glen Kenworthy in the Yorkshire Post, “…“It was scrappy,” admitted Kenworthy, whose side have slipped to ninth with two Championship games remaining. “It was a horrible match. We had some opportunities there at the end to get something out of the game.
“But we committed just too many errors in opposition red zone.
“It’s one of the few local derbies and you should be up for it but I thought the game as a whole was a bit of an anti-climax if I’m honest...” (Yorkshire Post 06.00, Monday 15th April 2019).
If only the penalty kick was a few cms to the inside of the post, it would have gone over, off the upright and we’d a won a losing bonus point. That would have returned us to eighth in the Championship. Every game is full of ‘if onlys’ and there’s no point looking back unless you can learn from it. Hopefully the Knights have learnt to be more clinical and take it to the game against Coventry.
Next up at Castle Park are the Cornish Pirates who are currently fifth before they welcome sixth-placed Carnegie. Carnegie are just one point below the Pirates. Nottingham are just one point below Carnegie, so it could be all-change after the weekend..
The only other fixture that could affect our ninth position is:
London Scottish (8th, +1) travel to Gillman’s Ground to play Hartpury College (11th)
We can hope that the students pull-off an upset when they attempt to get beyond Richmond’s reach thereby saving being relegated at the end of the season. The students are aware that Richmond must play top-placed London Irish on Friday.
We can’t be caught by Hartpury College (11th) or Richmond (12th) for the rest of the season.
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
