London Welsh
Doncaster v London Welsh - Play-off Preview
By Mark W-J
March 28 2012
The fourth weekend of matches in the Championship play-offs could determine three of the semi-finalists with two rounds of fixtures still to play. Wins for Bristol and Bedford at home to Nottingham and Leeds respectively would see both sides through to the knockout stages, while a Welsh win at Doncaster would - coupled with defeat for Nottingham on Friday - see us join them in the last four.
Not that the London Welsh supporters will be getting too far ahead of themselves after last weekend, of course. The general feeling before kick-off - although everyone was very careful not to voice such opinions too loudly for fear of tempting fate - was that Welsh should be too strong for a Doncaster side which had scored just six points and conceded 95 in their opening two fixtures. Yet the Knights played to the conditions, their open, running game helped by the home team’s questionable tactics of kicking away possession and opting not to make too many tackles in the unseasonably warm conditions. There was no question that we were fortunate to be only one score adrift at the interval, and while two quick tries in the latter stages made the game safe - just as they had against Nottingham a fortnight earlier - Donny earned a deserved bonus point when they crossed for a fourth try with the final play. That was the first try-bonus they’ve collected on their travels since winning 29-20 at Esher on 29th October, although at that stage they’d scored four tries in three of their four away fixtures, having also done so at Penzance and Leeds. Saturday’s defeat, however, was their seventh on the bounce, as they finished the regular season with reverses against all three of their Pool A rivals as well as Yorkshire neighbours, Rotherham.
Doncaster qualified for the promotion play-offs by finishing the regular season in 8th place; they were the only one of the top eight sides to win fewer than 50% of their matches, but still finished 16 points clear of 9th-placed London Scottish yet only 17 adrift of the Welsh in 4th spot. There’s a theory that sometimes the lower-ranked teams in Pools A&B have expended so much effort in their attempts to avoid the bottom four that they have nothing left in the tank for the play-offs, and there was a feeling during our midweek win over the Knights at the end of the regular campaign that the visiting players were struggling to compete in the final quarter. That may well have been due to the ridiculous rescheduling which saw them play at home to Rotherham on the Sunday, at Welsh on Wednesday afternoon, and at Bristol on the Friday night, but a similar observation was made on Saturday, particularly when we scored our two tries to effectively seal the victory. Donny’s fourth try, from the final play, however, showed that they weren’t completely out on their feet, and Welsh will need to be aware that, while they would need to win all three of their remaining fixtures and need other results to go their way to qualify for the knockout stages, they will not lie down until all hope is lost.
Doncaster winger Dougie Flockhart scored two tries and two of four conversion attempts last weekend to move on to 94 points for the season, just two behind David McIlwaine, a summer signing from Ulster who has been out injured since January. Over the last couple of seasons they’ve lost a significant number of established Championship players, including Hudson Tonga’uiha and Ed Jackson, arguably our two standout performers this year, as well as Matty Williams and Tristan Roberts (Bristol), Anthony Carter and Bevon Armitage (Moseley), Glen Townson and Dan Frazier (Newcastle), Stevie MacColl (Leeds) and Lewis Thiede (Wasps); the fact that Townson and Thiede have been loaned out to Championship rivals Bristol and London Scottish respectively undoubtedly makes their departures even harder to bear. Furthermore, the squad were hit by massive budget cuts last summer which certainly contributed to the decimation of the squad but also forced coach Brett Davey to rebuild with one eye on youth and potential. He’s performed admirably in that regard, replicating the success of Andre Bester at nearby Rotherham in unearthing previously unheralded players, particularly from Ireland, with full-back McIlwaine being joined by former Leinster winger Michael Keating who, with nine tries, is equal top scorer with Flockhart.
Saturday’s win was our eighth successive win over Doncaster, but overall we’ve won ten and drawn two of the 17 games since our first meeting in October 2005. In his programme notes last weekend Lyn referred to the fact that we are prone to what he called ‘performances of sheer complacency’, citing the festive horror shows against Esher and Moseley. The supporters are well aware of these apparent shortcomings, and while four points for the win have put us on the brink of qualification for the semi-finals for a third consecutive season, the defensive lapses which allowed a team who had scored only two penalties in their last two games to cross for three tries in the opening 40 minutes are enough to ensure that we do not simply expect to extend that sequence of results this weekend. Defeat at Castle Park would leave us needing to beat either Bristol or Nottingham - or possibly both, depending on other results involving those clubs- to ensure our safe passage to the last four, and while victory on Saturday might not in itself be enough to guarantee progress it would put us in a very strong position with just two games left to play.
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The Knights were unlucky to lose the play-off clash down in Richmond 34-24, with disciplinary errors costing them dear despite scoring four tries to Welsh’s three.
The only change to the starting line-up is at scrum-half, where Michael Heaney gets the nod over injured captain Chris Hallam.
Top scorer Michael Keating will once again switch from the wing to play at full-back after some promising performances in the 15 jersey, while teenage prop Tomas Francis is awarded his second Championship start following an impressive display in London.
The bench sees prop Andy Brown return from a short injury lay-off, while full-back Toby Berridge has recovered from a hamstring strain. Flanker Latu Makaafi has been named as a replacement back.
Doncaster must win their fourth Pool A match with a bonus point if they are to stand any chance of qualifying for the promotion semi-finals.
Kick-off is at 2:30pm at Castle Park.
Doncaster Knights v London Welsh
15 Michael Keating
14 Dougie Flockhart
13 Oli Goss
12 Fred Burdon
11 Ben Toft
10 Gareth Quinn-McDonogh
9 Michael Heaney
1 Royce Burke-Flynn
2 Steve Boden
3 Tomas Francis
4 Matt Challinor
5 Dom Parsons
6 Andy Boyde
7 Zack Farivarz
8 Chris Planchant
16 Jack Yeandle
17 Alex Brown
18 Andy Brown
19 Adam Kettle
20 David Bradford
21 Toby Berridge
22 Latu Makaafi
Indeed, the Exiles could secure their place in the last four this weekend if they can make it nine straight wins over the Knights and Bristol take the points against Nottingham at the Memorial Stadium this evening.
However, Welsh can ill afford a repeat of their first half performance against the Knights at Old Deer Park last Saturday, which forced Lyn Jones’ side to dig deep in the second half to eventually come out on top 34-24.
The visitors had led 19-12 and three tries to nil at the break, but second half tries from Dan George, Nick Scott and Hudson Tonga’uiha, together with 19 points from the boot of full back Alex Davies, maintained the Exiles’ unbeaten start to Pool A.
Welsh completed the double over the Knights in the regular season, when they followed up their 21-10 win at Castle Park with a 37-14 mid-week win at Old Deer Park last month. Jack Moates scoring the pick of the Exiles’ five tries.
The Exiles came out on top 29-24 last season and recorded a 26-10 victory in the sides 2009/10 play-off meeting.
Doncaster last tasted victory over Welsh in October 2009 when they won 20-9 at Old Deer Park.
London Welsh: 15. Alex Davies, 14. Nick Scott, 13. James Lewis, 12. Hudson Tonga’uiha*, 11. Joe Ajuwa, 10. Gordon Ross* ©, 9. Ben Stevenson, 1. Tom French, 2. Vili Ma’asi*, 3. Greg Bateman, 4. Gary Johnson, 5. Adam Brown, 6. Lee Beach, 7. Mike Denbee, 8. Ed Jackson.
Replacements: 16. Dan George, 17. Shawn Pittman*, 18. James Tideswell, 19. Matt Corker, 20. Ben Russell, 21. Jack Moates, 22. Simon Whatling.
* Denotes full international
Bedford through to s-f. Moseley safe, Donny can't get through to next stage. Elsewhere everything still to play for but Esher are going to need two wins and a great amount of luck to escape relegation now.
A week off now, to prepare for Bristol.
Must admit though that I've found the twitter updates that other clubs offer easier to follow (especially if out and about) as they automatically refresh and you can 'watch' multiple games at the same time. Best I've found are from Doncaster, Nottingham, Bristol and Leeds who all give more than just score updates.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:04:01:16:41:12 by londonbound.
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