Doncaster Knights

Last updated

Doncaster Knights
Doncaster Knights logo.png
Full nameDoncaster Knights Rugby Football Club
Union Yorkshire RFU
Nickname(s)Knights
Founded1875;149 years ago (1875)
Location Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England
Ground(s) Castle Park (Capacity: 5,000 (1,650 seated)
Director of Rugby Ian McGeechan
Coach(es) Joe Ford
League(s) RFU Championship
2023–24 6th
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Team kit
Official website
www.drfc.co.uk

Doncaster Knights Rugby Football Club(formerly, Doncaster RFC) are a professional rugby union club representing the city of Doncaster, England. The club play in the 2nd division of English rugby, the RFU Championship. Being the most promoted side in English history has led to huge changes at the Castle Park ground and within the team structure.

Contents

Castle Park Conference and Function centre is a multimillion-pound development and is among the top conference venues in Doncaster, while remaining a supportive place for amateur rugby union in the city. The club motto "rugby for all" sees amateur side Doncaster Phoenix compete at the same ground, as well as the ladies side Doncaster Demons and every age group from under-7 to under-17s.

History

The rise to National League One, from amateur status led to the rebranding of Doncaster RFC to Doncaster Knights for the 2006–07 season, and that season saw their highest placed finish to date under Clive Griffiths as Director of Rugby. In the same season, Doncaster also won the Yorkshire Cup.

After the departure of Griffiths to Worcester, the former Director of Rugby, Lynn Howells joined the club on the eve of the 2007–08 season. Justin Bishop, signed from London Irish, had acted as DOR during the pre-season.

Howells inspired the Knights to almost repeat the 3rd-place finish in his first season in charge, and has moulded the squad in his own image for the 2008–09 season. 9 January saw the opening of the new De Mulder-Lloyd Stand at Castle park, a £3 million state of the art 1650 seater stand. Driven by CEO James Criddle and funded by Tony De Mulder and Steve Lloyd this has seen Castle Park develop into undoubtedly the best rugby facility in South Yorkshire.

The home of the Knights, Castle Park, featured in and won "4 Weddings" and also hosted the Northern BBC TV news coverage for Remembrance Day during 2009 showing how for the operational side of the club has come supporting the on the pitch success.

The 2009–10 season saw the squad decimated by injuries, with no fewer than 15 unavailable players at one stage from a squad of 32. Despite this, and playing nine games in 27 days (of which they won eight) the Knights managed the semi-final of the British and Irish Cup and a promotion play-off finish. The result of the season being the defeat of Bristol at Castle Park, who like Leeds Carnegie before them underestimated the Knights as home.

The 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons were very average seasons with the Knights managing mid table status and avoiding the relegation playoffs with a reduction in playing budget meaning a shuffling of the pack which saw several long serving players move on to other clubs. The captures of the likes of Tristan Roberts and Paul Devlin hinted at a more creative side than the powerhouse forward game Doncaster are known for traditionally.

The 2012–13 season saw the Knights have a disappointing season with only three wins and a draw out of twenty two league matches and two wins from six in the British and Irish Cup competition which resulted in relegation (for the first time in Doncaster history) back to National League 1. One of the few highlights being a win over local rivals Leeds Carnegie 23–17 in February 2013.

For the 2013–14 season DOR Clive Griffiths signed a variety of new and returning players including Mat Clark, Paul Jarvis, Bevon Armitage, Roberto Santamaria and Bruno Bravo who would all feature as regulars in the coming season. The season looked to begin badly for the Knights as they were once again plagued by injuries particularly in the forwards but still with an intention to be the first team to secure promotion back to the Championship at the first time of asking. The Knights started strongly recording seven straight wins before losing away to Henley Hawks 11–10 [1] in a close fought game. The Knights campaign continued strongly at home although with away losses to Blaydon and Wharfedale they could not fully pull away from the following pack. With further signings during the year, such as former British Lion Darren Morris, [2] London Irish back row Danny Kenny, [3] Argentinian-Italian prop Santiago Sodini [4] and the return of former Knight Richard List from RC Narbonne [5] to bolster the injury prone team, the Knights continued to be the team to beat having been top of the table for the majority of the season.

In late March 2014 with only four games left to play of the season there were only two teams (Rosslyn Park & the Knights) left with the potential to win the league and with them due to meet on 29 March many believed that this could be the most important match of the season. The game resulted in a win for Rosslyn Park [6] and meant the Knights would need to win all three of their remaining matches to guarantee promotion. With a win over Wharfedale (57–17) at home to secure a 100% home win record for the season followed by away wins against Coventry (17–18) & Blackheath (20–38) the Knights secured promotion back to the Championship despite having lost one more game than Rosslyn Park (having achieved more bonus points to be three points clear).

During the 2013–14 season Tyson Lewis was the top try scorer for National League 1 with 22 tries and his teammate Mat Clark was equal second on 20 tries. Tyson also achieved Guinness World Record fame for "The fastest time to score a try in a rugby union match". [7] The try was scored direct from the opening kick off in 7.24 seconds (Doncaster Knights vs Old Albanians at Wollam Playing Fields, St Albans, UK, on 23 November 2013).

Honours

Doncaster Knights

[8]

Doncaster Phoenix (amateur side)

Current standings

2024–25 RFU Championship table
PosTeam
PldWDLPFPAPDTBLBPtsQualification
1 Coventry 550017174+974024Promotion place
2 Ealing Trailfinders 5401247102+1455122
3 Bedford Blues 5401149138+114020
4 Hartpury University 5302164152+124117
5 Nottingham 5302155102+533116
6 Chinnor 5203150134+163112
7 London Scottish 5203104142−382111
8 Ampthill 5203109223−1143011
9 Doncaster Knights 5203113142−292010
10 Cambridge 5203108179−712010
11 Cornish Pirates 5104109130−21239
12 Caldy 500591152−61022Relegation place
Updated to match(es) played on 19 October 2024. Source: Source: RFU Championship [9]
Rules for classification: If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
  1. Number of matches won
  2. Difference between points for and against
  3. Total number of points for
  4. Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams
  5. Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled

Current squad

The Doncaster Knights squad for the 2024-25 season. [10]

Note: Flags indicate national union under World Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

PlayerPositionUnion
Ben Chapman Hooker Flag of England.svg England
Fred Davies Hooker Flag of England.svg England
George Roberts Hooker Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg Wales
Conor Davidson Prop Flag of Australia (converted).svg Australia
Joe Jones Prop Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg Wales
Jasper McGuire Prop Flag of England.svg England
Calvin Mitchell Prop Flag of England.svg England
Logovi'i Mulipola Prop Flag of Samoa.svg Samoa
Lewis Thiede Prop Flag of England.svg England
Andrew Turner Prop Flag of England.svg England
James Harrison Lock Flag of England.svg England
Ben Murphy Lock Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg Wales
Taniela Ramasibana Lock Flag of Fiji.svg Fiji
Cory Teague Lock Flag of England.svg England
Josh Williams Lock Flag of England.svg England
Arthur Green Back row Flag of England.svg England
Adam Hopkinson Back row Flag of England.svg England
Archie Smeaton Back row Flag of England.svg England
Thom Smith Back row Flag of England.svg England
Morgan Strong Back row Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg Wales
Rhys Tait Back row Flag of Scotland.svg Scotland
PlayerPositionUnion
Alex Dolly Scrum-half Flag of Australia (converted).svg Australia
Oliver Fox Scrum-half Flag of England.svg England
Will Metcalfe Scrum-half Flag of England.svg England
Russell Bennett Fly-half Flag of England.svg England
Morgan Bunting Fly-half Flag of England.svg England
Connor Edwards Centre Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg Wales
Zach Kerr Centre IRFU flag.svg Ireland
Will Parry Centre Flag of England.svg England
Sai Tobeyaweni Centre Flag of Fiji.svg Fiji
Malakai Wacokecoke Centre Flag of England.svg England
Westleigh Alleyne Holden Wing Flag of England.svg England
Semesa Rokoduguni Wing Flag of Fiji.svg Fiji
Koloti Veainu Wing Flag of Tonga.svg Tonga
Harry Davey Fullback Flag of England.svg England
Jordan Olowofela Fullback Flag of England.svg England

    Past performance

    YearTierDivisionPWDLPFPAPDTBLBPtsNotes
    2023-242English Championship201118509529-209257Finished 6th
    2022-232English Championship2210012565583-189352Finished 6th
    2021-222English Championship20*17035243222029077Finished 2nd
    2020-212English Championship10*802236225114036Finished 3rd
    2019-202English Championship15*609268351-833128Finished 10th on 36.84pts*
    2018-192English Championship228014546617-716442Finished 10th
    2017-182English Championship229112582615-3313657Finished 7th
    2016–172English Championship20*1208514424909158Finished 4th
    2015–162English Championship22152558847011810579Finished 2nd
    2014–152English Championship228113429481−523643Finished 9th
    2013–143National League 1302505943487456184122Promoted to Championship as champions
    2012–132English Championship223118364592−2282723Relegated to National League 1
    2011–122English Championship229211467524−577350
    2010–112English Championship229013572576−47851
    2009–102English Championship221001239438682648
    2008–092National 1302127895571324143105
    2007-082National 130210979655124512298
    2006-072National 13022178554743811641101st Season as Doncaster Knights
    2005-062National 12610115555699−1445552
    2004-053National 2262312818379439111106Promoted to National 1 as champions
    2003–043National 2261709692487205––34
    2002–033National 2261401263055179––28
    2001–024National 3 North2625011074357717––50Promoted to National 2 as champions
    2000–014National 3 North231616584364220––33
    1999–20004National 2 North2612212656539117––26
    1998–995North 1221813550214336––37Promoted to National 2 North as champions
    1997–985North 1221723489285204––36
    1996–976North 2222200690259431––44Promoted to North 1 as champions
    1995–966North 21242618316815––10
    1994–956North 212705136155−19––14
    1993–947North East 112110123270162––22Promoted to North 2
    1992–938North East 212110129439255––22Promoted to North East 1
    1991–92
    1990–91
    1989–90
    1988–89
    1987–8810Yorkshire 2

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    References

    1. ↑ "Unbeaten run comes to an end for Knights at Henley". www.yorkshirepost.co.uk.
    2. ↑ "Former British Lion joins the Knights". www.thestar.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
    3. ↑ "Back row Danny Kenny arrives from London Irish". www.thestar.co.uk.
    4. ↑ "Santiago arrives at the Castle". www.thestar.co.uk.
    5. ↑ "Return of Richard List". www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk.
    6. ↑ "Rosslyn Park 21 Doncaster Knights 18". www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk.
    7. ↑ "Fastest time to score a try in a rugby union match". Guinness World Records . Retrieved 7 April 2014.
    8. ↑ "History". www.drfc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 May 2014.
    9. ↑ "RFU Championship". England Rugby.
    10. ↑ "1st XV Squad". Doncaster Knights. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
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