Both sides will view this as a must win fixture if they are to hold on to the dream of catching Northampton Saints in the race for promotion to the Guinness Premiership.

Doncaster lie 2nd in the table with 56 points whilst the Chiefs are in 3rd position with 55 points.  So with the return fixture set for the last day of the 2007/08 season this is a really important match.

This will only be the 5th time the two sides have met in League Rugby.  The Chiefs hold the upper hand with 2 wins in season 2005/06 but honours were even in 2006/07.  Both sides won the home fixture, 24-11 to Doncaster and 36-12 to the Chiefs when they last played at Sandy Park in March 2007. Doncaster finished just in front of the Chiefs last season in 4th place having finished 10th the previous season (their 1st in ND1).  

Doncaster's two losses were to the same teams as the Chiefs losses.  The Cornish Pirates beat Chiefs 30-23 at Camborne and defeated Doncaster 12-16 on their own ground.  The other team to beat both was Northampton Saints winning 11-25 at Sandy Park and a 39-17 home win against Doncaster.  The other results show little difference on paper between the two sides, which could point to a close encounter.

The match marks the half-way point of the season with each team having played all the other sides.  Who will start the second half in 2nd place?  We'll know that before 5pm on Saturday.

Squad for Saturday..

15 Sean Marsden
14 Jason Luff
13 Mark Fatialofa
12 Junior Fatialofa
11 Josh Drauniniu
10 Danny Gray
9 Clive Stuart-Smith
1 Shane Kingsland
2 Sam Blythe
3 John Andress
4 James Hanks
5 Lewis Stevenson
6 Tom Johnson
7 Andy Miller
8 Richie Baxter (capt)

16 Simon Jenkins
17 Craig Dunlea
18 Brett Sturgess
19 Chris Bentley
20 Tony Yapp
21 Wade Kelly
22 Alan Miller

Come On You Chiefs.........