Post by Jamie Crawford on Mar 20, 2018 16:14:19 GMT
After a bad day at the office at Castle Park last Saturday which saw the Knights defeated by Richmond 12-22, the Knights intend to return to winning ways. The game must have been very emotional for the players after marking Ian’s passing and Richmond looked very keen to do the double over the Knights. The Knights travel to the Goldington Road slope to play third-placed Bedford Blues.
In fact Griff later commented in the Star on Monday 19th,
““It’s all very raw” - Clive Griffiths makes admission as Doncaster Knights defeated on emotional day
…“We need to rediscover ourselves and that is something we talked about in the dressing room after the game,” he said reflecting on Saturday’s 22-12 Championship defeat at home to Richmond…”
In their review of the defeat to Richmond on Sunday 18th, the Star mentioned, “…Already down to the bare bones with well over half-a-dozen players on the sidelines, Knights’ cause wasn’t helped when prop Richard List cried off with a bug on the day of the match and centre Mat Clark also pulled out due to feeling unwell during the warm-up...”
I hope we have more fit players when we play Bedford and turn the metaphorical clock back to winning ways before the clock springs forward at midnight (or 1.00am!)
The Knights are now sixth and Bedford Blues are third in the Championship. Both teams have won eight games but Bedford have drawn two, lost seven and have a game in hand. The Knights have drawn one and lost nine of their games played. I don’t need to tell you that following the loss to Richmond, we have now lost more games than we’ve won this season but on the plus side, we have a positive point’s difference (four!) On their Championship journeys, Bedford have scored just 45 more points and conceded only 24 fewer points than us. The Blues have scored eight more tries than the Knights and conceded five more but again, they’ve played one fewer game, Bedford are the Championship’s third highest try-scorers and Doncaster are fourth.
Blues Wing Dean Adamson (all tries), Fly Half William Hooley and Fly Half Harry Sheppard are all in the Championship top fifteen points-scorers. Only the Knights’ Simon Humberstone appears on the list (sixth), Not surprisingly given Adamson’s points-scoring, he is also the Championship’s top try-scorer after scoring sixteen tries. The Knights’ leading try-scorer Ben Hunter has scored half that amount, as has another Blues Wing Richard Lane. Blues Scrum Half Jordan Burns has only scored one try fewer with seven tries to his name.
Bedford try-scoring is heavily weighted to the Backs with 77% of tries scored being by Backs. 44% of tries scored by the Backs have been scored by Wingers. A similar amount of tries have been conceded to Backs and Forwards, with unusually the Front Row taking centre-stage. Only Rotherham Titans have conceded more tries to the Front Row than the Blues (one).
Back Row Jarad Williams moved to Bedford pre-season and will know some of the plays but we’ve got to show him that we are the better team, Bedford are only two points above us and so we will leapfrog them if we win.
Other games whose result could have a consequence on our league position are:
Friday 23rd March
Top-placed Bristol welcome Carnegie (5th, equal league points) to Ashton Gate Stadium
Saturday 24th March
Jersey Reds (4th, equal league points) host one foot on the trap door Rotherham Titans
Sunday 25th March
Cornish Pirates (7th, 2 points below) play London Scottish (11th) at their Mennaye home
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
In fact Griff later commented in the Star on Monday 19th,
““It’s all very raw” - Clive Griffiths makes admission as Doncaster Knights defeated on emotional day
…“We need to rediscover ourselves and that is something we talked about in the dressing room after the game,” he said reflecting on Saturday’s 22-12 Championship defeat at home to Richmond…”
In their review of the defeat to Richmond on Sunday 18th, the Star mentioned, “…Already down to the bare bones with well over half-a-dozen players on the sidelines, Knights’ cause wasn’t helped when prop Richard List cried off with a bug on the day of the match and centre Mat Clark also pulled out due to feeling unwell during the warm-up...”
I hope we have more fit players when we play Bedford and turn the metaphorical clock back to winning ways before the clock springs forward at midnight (or 1.00am!)
The Knights are now sixth and Bedford Blues are third in the Championship. Both teams have won eight games but Bedford have drawn two, lost seven and have a game in hand. The Knights have drawn one and lost nine of their games played. I don’t need to tell you that following the loss to Richmond, we have now lost more games than we’ve won this season but on the plus side, we have a positive point’s difference (four!) On their Championship journeys, Bedford have scored just 45 more points and conceded only 24 fewer points than us. The Blues have scored eight more tries than the Knights and conceded five more but again, they’ve played one fewer game, Bedford are the Championship’s third highest try-scorers and Doncaster are fourth.
Blues Wing Dean Adamson (all tries), Fly Half William Hooley and Fly Half Harry Sheppard are all in the Championship top fifteen points-scorers. Only the Knights’ Simon Humberstone appears on the list (sixth), Not surprisingly given Adamson’s points-scoring, he is also the Championship’s top try-scorer after scoring sixteen tries. The Knights’ leading try-scorer Ben Hunter has scored half that amount, as has another Blues Wing Richard Lane. Blues Scrum Half Jordan Burns has only scored one try fewer with seven tries to his name.
Bedford try-scoring is heavily weighted to the Backs with 77% of tries scored being by Backs. 44% of tries scored by the Backs have been scored by Wingers. A similar amount of tries have been conceded to Backs and Forwards, with unusually the Front Row taking centre-stage. Only Rotherham Titans have conceded more tries to the Front Row than the Blues (one).
Back Row Jarad Williams moved to Bedford pre-season and will know some of the plays but we’ve got to show him that we are the better team, Bedford are only two points above us and so we will leapfrog them if we win.
Other games whose result could have a consequence on our league position are:
Friday 23rd March
Top-placed Bristol welcome Carnegie (5th, equal league points) to Ashton Gate Stadium
Saturday 24th March
Jersey Reds (4th, equal league points) host one foot on the trap door Rotherham Titans
Sunday 25th March
Cornish Pirates (7th, 2 points below) play London Scottish (11th) at their Mennaye home
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
