Username
Password
News: COYSDC Match Report Knights 3 Saints 17
By Emma Brooker February 3 2008
The Saints got one step closer to Twickenham today after winning the first game of the Donny double-header. It was a fairly typical cup affair, with both sides putting the desire to score points above the need to score tries – the try bonus counts for nowt in this competition.
NDF National Trophy, Round 5

DONCASTER KNIGHTS 3 vs. 17 NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

Saturday, 2nd February, 2008 - 2PM

Castle Park

Appropriately enough, February 2nd is Groundhog Day.  In Philadelphia, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, thus forecasting 6 more weeks of winter.  The Saints were supposed to struggle on the heavy pitches at this time of the year, but on recent evidence they’ll welcome the chilly weather with open arms (well, Paul Diggin might not). 

Chris Ashton’s suspension meant Jim Mallinder was forced to change the Saints’ back line for the team’s first visit of the season to Castle Park.  Neil Starling found himself on the wing, with Jon Clarke coming in to the centre.  There were changes in the forwards too, with Tom Smith, Paul Shields, and Barry Stewart making up a completely different front row to the one that ran rings around Sedgley Park.  Matt Lord came in to the second row, partnering Alex Rae, while the back row was left unchanged (Easter, Hopley, and Fox). 

The Saints kicked off with the wind behind them, and almost immediately nearly scored a try after Carlos Spencer cleverly chipped ahead.  Unfortunately Jon Clarke couldn’t quite gather the ball, and the Knights were awarded a scrum inside their own 22.  For the next few minutes, most of the play took place between the halfway line and the Knights’ 22.  The Saints tried to put together an attack, but handling errors meant that they never really threatened as much as they would have liked to.   

After about ten minutes the Saints were awarded a penalty, which, perhaps buoyed by his performance last week, Bruce opted to kick at goal.  His self-confidence was justified, as he put the Saints 3-0 in front.  Once again play seemed stuck in the middle of the pitch, with both sides squandering chances through poor handling.  A quickly taken Doncaster penalty was rewarded when James Downey was penalised for not rolling away (I think the referee enjoyed signaling this, judging by the number of times he awarded penalties for the offence).  Mark Woodrow, Doncaster’s diminutive fly half opted to kick at goal.  This was rather optimistic, as he was not even 10m inside the Saints’ half, and had to have someone holding the ball upright as the wind was blowing so strongly towards him.  Perhaps unsurprisingly the kick was missed. 

A quick word here about Mr Woodrow.  Although small (he appeared to me to be smaller than his own scrum half, a rare sight unless Mike Phillips is playing), he caught everything thrown his way, whether it be round his ears or round his ankles, and varied his play with some decent kicking out of hand. 

The Saints’ next scoring chance came after a crunching tackle by Jon Clarke lead to Doncaster being penalised.  Bruce stepped up again and successfully slotted kick number two, giving the Saints a 6-0 lead after about quarter of an hour (there was no clock, and my watch doesn’t have numbers, so the timekeeping may be slightly awry!). 

The Saints knocked on at the restart, and the referee played advantage while Doncaster put together a decent-looking attack, with some excellent handling from Mark Woodrow and his centres.  The referee’s whistle blew again, and this time it was Fox being penalised for not rolling away.  Faced with an opportunity on the Saints’ 22, Woodrow stepped up again and got his team on the scoreboard.  Twenty minutes gone, and the score was 6-3 to the Saints.

The referee missed what seemed like a rather obvious Doncaster knock on from the restart, but soon awarded the Saints a penalty for offside.  Bruce was unsuccessful with his third attempt at goal, but soon had the chance to redeem himself after Doncaster conceded another penalty.  The announcer at Doncaster Racecourse did his best to put Bruce off, but was unsuccessful.  9-3 to the Saints, and twenty-five minutes played. 

By now my writing hand was rather cold, and so my notes are a little brief for the next few minutes.  To be honest, I don’t think much happened.  The Saints were given a penalty following a rather obvious offside, which once again was successfully converted by Bruce’s boot, so after thirty-five minutes the Saints were 12-3 in front.  Obviously rather confident by now, Bruce had another go at goal from inside his own half soon after.  The Doncaster fans were not particularly impressed, with shouts of ‘boring!’ ringing out.  To show that he isn’t all boring and consistent, Bruce missed.   

The wind played its part in the Saints’ next attacking move.  Carlos Spencer attempted a high cross-kick, but the wind appeared to change direction and held the ball up so that almost all of the Saints’ players over ran it.  Matt Lord attempted to catch it, but knocked it on.  Doncaster launched another attack from the resulting scrum, and soon after a certain Darren Fox was penalised for, you guessed it, not rolling away.  Woodrow opted to kick to touch, and won a good lineout.  The Saints’ defence was called into action and stood up to the task well.  Eventually they were penalised, and once again Doncaster went for touch.  They won the lineout, and the forwards drove towards the line.  The ball was held up short however, and the referee took this opportunity to blow for half time.  I took the opportunity to put my mittens on.

 The second half saw the Saints kicking into the wind and looking into the sun, perfect conditions for cricketing excuses (who hasn’t blamed the sun being in their eyes or the wind carrying the ball for dropping an easy catch?).  As if to prove my point, Mark Robinson dropped the restart (I didn’t hear which meteorological phenomenon he blamed though), giving Doncaster a scrum inside the Saints’ 22.  The Saints were kept under pressure as the Knights were awarded another scrum and kept the attack alive thanks to good switching between back and forward play.  An excellent cross-kick by Woodrow nearly resulted in a score for winger Paul Bailey, but Paul Diggin managed to hold on to the ball, thus denying the Knights. 

The next quarter of an hour saw play once again get stuck in the middle of the pitch.  It must have been warmer there or something.  Jon Clarke had the opportunity to break after pouncing on a loose ball, but seemed unsure of his pace and chose to kick ahead instead of running with it.  Eventually, the Saints broke the try-scoring deadlock thanks to some good work by Neil Starling got the Saints into the Doncaster half.  A lovely little pass by Tom Smith put Mark Easter through a gap, and Jon Clarke took the ball on and over the line.  The conversion was missed, but the Saints still had a comfortable looking lead, with the scoreboard reading 17-3 in their favour.   

The final twenty minutes of the match were scoreless, although Doncaster came closest to crossing the whitewash with a series of drives close to the Saints’ line following a kick to touch from a penalty.  The highlight of this period was the remarkable sight of Paul Tupai getting a penalty reversed – in the Saints’ favour. 

While the game was perhaps a little disappointing, but understandably so, the Cow Pie was not.  Nor was the hospitality of the Doncaster TOSSERS (The Other Side Standing Enthusiastic Rugby Supporters or somesuch), one of whom took pity on me as I sat on the floor in the clubhouse with my plate of pie ‘n peas and offered me his seat.  My mum was also impressed with the posts (she liked the stripes and the fact they had painted tops or something), which I’m sure you’re all very glad to hear.

I’m sure next week’s game will be different.  Today was just about winning, which the Saints did, expending as little effort as possible in the process. 

 

Bookmark or share this story with: