London Welsh
Doncaster v London Welsh - Match Preview
By Mark W-J
January 21 2010
Just as the inaugural Championship was building nicely towards the play-offs, the Arctic spell means that the fixtures of two weeks ago will be played on 13th March – the date when the play-offs were to start. Whether we can blame the RFU for not predicting the snow is debatable, but the rescheduled fixtures will be welcomed by Doncaster, who have suffered five postponements in league and cup.
The Knights have undoubtedly been the surprise package of the season – but it’s been an unpleasant surprise for the Castle Park faithful. Three successive top-five finishes led most observers to predict that Donny would be sitting comfortably in the promotion play-off places come the spring, but nobody expected that they would have to wait until week six to collect their first point before picking-up a maiden win in week seven. The fact that that first win against Plymouth was followed by victories over Bristol and London Welsh leaves us all wondering – will the real Doncaster please stand up…?
The club’s first rearranged fixture was a 27-21 defeat at Nottingham on Wednesday evening: both clubs have seen four league games wiped-out by the weather, and Donny had gone over a month since their last match, a 14-3 win over Moseley before Christmas. Unsurprisingly, after such a long rest period, coach Lyn Howells selected a strong line-up for the short trip down the M1; whether the quick turnaround before the Exiles’ visit will be reflected in a potentially weaker selection on Saturday remains to be seen.
Going into the midweek game, the Knights had the best defensive record in the league, having conceded only 234 points and 22 tries from their 14 games. Admittedly the four postponements have helped to keep these figures artificially low, but their average of only 16.7 points conceded per match is bettered only by Bristol (15.7) and Exeter (16.6), with Welsh marginally behind on 16.9. The only try-bonus point they’ve conceded was – believe it or not - against Moseley, in a 33-25 defeat at Billesley Common at the end of September.
The flip-side of the parsimonious defence, however, is the misfiring attack. After Birmingham Solihull’s shock 31-31 draw in their ‘home’ fixture at Camborne on Sunday – the only game they’ve not lost to-date and featuring a first four-try haul of the season –the Midlanders had scored only one try fewer than Donny’s meagre haul of 24, and had achieved the same number of try-bonuses. The Knights scored five tries in their 36-7 win over the Bees in early November, and the two teams are scheduled to meet again on Saturday week. Former Esher winger Doug Flockhart is officially top try-scorer with three, but they’ve also been awarded a stunning six penalty tries - against Exeter, Plymouth, London Welsh, Bees (two), and Rotherham – accounting for 25% of their total tries scored.
It’s clear that, having struggled to get out of the blocks at the start of the season, the stop-start nature of the last couple of months has knocked Donny off their stride. The opening run of six defeats has been almost negated by a run of six wins from eight, although the two losses in that period came either side of the break for the British & Irish Cup. As mentioned, the snow and ice followed on from two more wins, including a tense 12-10 win away to the Pirates. Five of their six wins have come against teams currently in the Top 8, and with fixtures still to come against all of the bottom three plus a visit from Plymouth now scheduled for the final weekend, the home supporters will be hoping that the fixture backlog doesn’t catch up with them.
From a Welsh perspective, it’s a relief that the snow has melted and we’ve got some rugby to distract us once again. Sunday’s win over Moseley, while never really in much doubt after Errie Claassens crossed inside two minutes, was a largely subdued affair – maybe players and supporters were distracted by matters elsewhere… But the win took us back above Bedford into 3rd place after their impressive trouncing of Nottingham 24 hours previously, and we’ve won five from six since the league reconvened. Yet nobody who witnessed Doncaster’s 20-9 win at ODP in October will expect an easy away win on Saturday, especially as that followed hot on the heels of a lacklustre display in beating Moseley the previous week.
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Quote:Wilbers
You thoroughly deserved the win. Donny never once looked like scoring a try. Sad to admit but we now look like we deserve to be in the bottom four. For the first time I heard "regime change" mentioned in our crowd. Ominous. Good luck with your troubles.
Although we did deserve our win yesterday i'm sure you guys will not be in the bottom four. PADDYTAF
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