Doncaster Knights 12 Coventry Rugby 27: 'ungracious' (!!!) Cov put Knights to the sword

Mother, mother

Everybody thinks we're wrong

Oh, but who are they to judge us?

Simply because our hair is long

Oh, you know we've got to find a way

Bring some understanding here today...

Don't punish me with brutality (brother, brother)

Come on talk to me (brother)

I'll tell you ya, what's going on (what's going on)

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye

Another trip up to Doncaster, another excellent day out. Win or lose, it's always been an enjoyable away day - two sets of supporters who share the same values and have a mutual respect for each other and their respective teams.

At least that's what I'd always believed.

But maybe in my naivety I'd imagined that we're seen by others as a proper rugby club along with all that entails, especially good sportsmanship.

And by 'we' I mean both the supporters and the club itself.

So it was with some surprise that whilst on the Doncaster Unofficial Fans' Forum, I happened to come across the following:

The Knights travelled to Butts Park Arena last November apparently in the wrong frame of mind due to a player being injured in their last training session before the game and the team had to alter formation and styles of play. They were heavily beaten by Cov 51-7. Cov are not known to be gracious in victory, which winds the Knights up. Hence, they have a score to settle (literally), so expect an outstanding performance by the Knights.

Cov known to lack 'grace' in victory'?

By whom?

By Doncaster or by the league generally?

Really?

Is this honestly the case?

I presume it's a comment directed at the club and/or players rather than its supporters but either way it's not something I've been aware of, either under Alex Rae's leadership or that of Rowland Winter before him.

And if you slight the club, you slight the supporters.

Tous pour un and all that.

I have to say, it upset me somewhat. And, knowing that in advance, it made yesterday's win all the more enjoyable. I appreciate that's a bit petty on my part, but so was the initial comment and the irony is, of course, that by making the comment in the first place the writer is guilty of showing exactly the same lack of chivalry of which he is accusing Coventry.

Hardly gracious in defeat himself.

I appreciate it's just one comment from one poster, but it was the only post on the Forum leading up to the game and, given the link to the Forum forms part of the official Doncaster Knights website, it's as if the club itself is endorsing that view.

No one has since come back to question it so one's left with the distinct impression that this is, indeed, the view of Doncaster Knights and its supporters generally. For this reason, I can see why Coventry don't promote the Coventry Unofficial Forum, thereby ensuring it is distancing itself from such remarks. And there have been a few of those in the past!

It's an eminently sensible approach.

For the record, we sat next to a lovely chap who was Doncaster through and through and was very complimentary about the club and its away support which did much to redress the balance. That said, sitting behind us were a group of a dozen or so supporters who had to ask who Doncaster were playing when they arrived to their seats a good 5 minutes after the start of the game and then proceeded to talk about Premiership football for the duration, with little or no interest in the game itself. It got a bit wearing to be honest.

From what they were saying, it was evident that they'd had free entry, (presumably through some sponsors' event?). Cov will be the same in this respect I guess, but I think most of those who enjoy hospitality at the BPA stay in the various hospitality areas around the ground or in the upstairs rooms of the main stand.

Not a criticism of either club at all, just an observation.

And to be clear, Castle Park remains one of my favourite away days, it's just that this particular visit was soured a little by that remark concerning Coventry's apparently lack of humility in victory.

I suppose the obvious retort to Donny though is simple.

Make sure you don't lose.

An hour before the game, the surface of the pitch was starting to cut up. Plenty of more rain was to follow

When we arrived at Castle Park 90 minutes or so before kick-off, there had been an almighty downpour which had ended just minutes before we stepped off the coach.

The paths were pretty wet and pooling in places, with the pitch struggling to drain - the ball was creating something of a splash as it landed early on in the warm-ups.

In fairness, it seemed to drain quickly and whilst it did cut up a little during the game, despite further heavy showers, it played pretty well considering the volume of rain involved.

For anyone who hasn't been up to Donny, the ground is the closest in the league to the BPA in terms of facilities and look; purpose-built and offering plenty of food/drink options.

It has the additional benefit of a further all-weather pitch adjacent to the main one and with additional land available, it's not hard to see why the RFU have deemed it to be the only ground in the Championship to have satisfied its Minimum Standards Criteria, thus allowing Doncaster eligibility for Premiership rugby were the club to be promoted.

Whilst I'm very much on a health kick at the moment, forced though it is, Josh (my grandson) opted for a cow-pie before the game and appeared to thoroughly enjoy it (as he has on previous visits!). Costing 'only £6.50 (I think), it certainly looked excellent value, a good deal better than the fare available at Coventry at the moment certainly. As is currently the case at the BPA, there was no healthier option available.

In a game that has fitness and well-being as one of its core values, you'd think there would be at least one club at this level that would offer a fresh take on match day food and blaze a trail for a healthier life style both for its supporters and the local community, especially with so many youngsters involved in pre-match entertainment these days. It would make good press, that's for sure.

---

Once the game got underway, it was clear that it was never going to be a high scoring, free-flowing spectacle. Handling errors, a result of a wet ball and slippery conditions underfoot, meant that it was a bit of a stop/start affair, although Luke Pearce did his best to allow advantage wherever possible. The first scrum of the game, within a minute or so of kick off, resulted in a Cov penalty and, from thereon in, Cov's pack dominated the set piece.

Earlier in the season when we had both Andy Nicol and Toby Trinder out, the two youngsters, Eliot Salt and Elliot Chilvers struggled a little, but even before the return of Nicol they'd both formed a decent partnership and looked far more solid. With the acquisition of Vilikesa Nairau and the long-awaited return of Trinder, the scrum has improved steadily to the point where yesterday Doncaster had no answer to the power and technical ability of the Cov front row. Having the experience of Jordan Poole there too helps considerably, of course.

Donny's strength is usually very much in its forwards, but yesterday its pack was simply outpowered and out played for pretty much the entire game. Cov's defensive lineouts also strangled much of the ball the home side might have hoped to win and if you're losing ball to the extent Doncaster were in the set pieces, well it's always going to be a tough struggle.

Cov dominated the first half yesterday in a way that we've seldom seen this season, with Doncaster managing only one excursion into our 22 and it took a scrambled defence, led by Matt Kvesic, to first nullify the threat and then clear their lines. Within 30 seconds we were back in their 22.

That we didn't score more than 10 points in the first half was down to too many handling errors, excusable given the further rain, and some strange decisions, especially when it came to kicking. On too many occasions we tried to kick behind Donny's relatively flat defence, either from a distance or with little dinks nearer their line. Neither worked and it became a little frustrating to watch. It was no real surprise then that when the try did eventually come, it was as a result of a bit of Pellegrini magic rather than a kick and chase.

It took Cov 38 minutes to unlock Donny's defence and it's worth stating at this point that whilst Donny's forwards struggled in the lineouts and scrums, defensively their players put in a real shift and had it not been for their resilience, the game could have been all but over by half time. Cov again opted for a couple of penalties during the game from close range, a sure sign that Doncaster were defending well.

The game followed a similar pattern in the second half until the 67th minute when a 14-man drive (Donny were on a yellow at that point in the game after a collapsed scrum led to a penalty try for Cov and card for one of the Doncaster props) earned the visitors their first try and a long chase following a kick gave them their second. A missed conversion meant that Cov still had a two-score advantage when, in the 79th minute, Donny lost possession in its own 22 enabling Tom Hitchcock to score his first try in Cov colours and the team's third.

Being picky, we should have had a bonus point given the opportunities we had, a point that would have taken us to second in the league rather than the current third - one of the few disappointing features of what was otherwise such a dominant Coventry performance.

New scrum half Toby Venner came on for the last 15 minutes or so and looked full of energy and he clearly can inject some pace into the game. He's an interesting addition to the squad for fairly obvious reasons, but I did feel for Will Lane yesterday. I'm presuming he's not injured so it must be tough to find himself probably third in the pecking order despite having acquitted himself admirably when Chudley has been absent or he's come off the bench.

Lane looks a really good player and he must be frustrated at his lack of game time, as must Evan Mitchell. Both look Championship players and its got to be tough sitting out games as much as they do. I watched Will Lane coming off the pitch before kick-off yesterday and he was going round all the players patting them on that back or saying a few words of encouragement in their ears.

You just can't buy that sort of team loyalty. Part of that must be down to the coaches, too - I'm not sure how you keep players like Mitchell and Lane happy with their lot when they just aren't getting the time on the pitch they would want.

---

It was a really satisfying win.

At home Doncaster are always a hard team to beat so just the win alone was pleasing. But to have taken the points in the manner in which they did must give Cov plenty of confidence going into next Saturday's game at home against Ealing.

The Ealing front row will be altogether stronger than Doncaster's but, in the game earlier in the season, Cov led them at half time. Up front, Cordwell and Salt held their own against Clarke and Alo and it was only when Ealing changed its entire front row that we started to really struggle in the scrums.

In November Nicol and Trinder were both out injured and Nairau wasn't even at the club.

Nicol's return to fitness has made a huge difference and with Trinder getting back to some sort of match fitness after a couple of games back too, we are in a much better position than we were back then. I presume Chilvers won't be allowed to play given he's on loan from Ealing (I think that was the case earlier in the season) as is Tom Hitchcock, so that will be a concern but after putting in such a strong display yesterday, the Cov squad must fancy its chances of pulling off what would still be a surprise win, at least to those outside of Coventry.

Just over 2000 watched the game yesterday, a couple of hundred or so above Donny's average gate this season according to the chap sitting next to me, bolstered by two Supporters' Club coaches and the 12 or so freebies sitting behind us in the main stand.

It was a fairly muted affair if truth be told, but with Doncaster given little opportunity to play anywhere close to the Coventry line, there was very little for the home supporters to shout about.

The BPA next week will certainly be much more energised even though there hasn't really been the hard sell from the club as yet that we saw for both the Nottingham game at Christmas and for Bedford a week later. If there's a bit more hype about the fixture on social media between now and Saturday, you'd like to think Cov could be entertaining another crowd in excess of 3700. Ticket sales for the seated stand don't appear great at the moment, but that should improve later in the week.

Three additional members of the Smith family are coming along, unsolicited from me, so I'm hoping that will be replicated elsewhere, with those who came to watch the Notts and Bedford games tempted back for a second or third time.

I'm not expecting anything other than a hard-fought encounter in which Cov take the game to Ealing. If they can get into their faces early doors and the crowd begins to sense an upset, then the BPA will become loud and intimidating and no easy place to play.

It's all set up for another Coventry Rugby classic.

Up the Cov!

---

Cov not known to be gracious in victory...

Mother, mother

Everybody thinks we're wrong

Oh, but who are they to judge us?