Nottingham claimed their first win at Castle Park since February 2019 with a gritty performance that included being reduced to 14 men on two occasions. In perfect conditions in South Yorkshire, despite only having a third of the possession throughout a first half littered with penalties, Nottingham took the lead early and weathered an enormous amount of pressure to stay ahead at the break.
Doncaster edged in front early in the second period but the timely arrival of The Archers’ forward replacements helped turn the tide in the away side’s favour, culminating in the first try bonus point against Doncaster since 2015.
Early pressure from Nottingham led to Doncaster committing three penalties in quick succession. The visitors chose to kick to the corner on each occasion and, on his 50th appearance, Harry Clayton was the ultimate beneficiary as he piled over for the opening score. The Knights’ discipline didn’t immediately improve – a further two penalties later, captain David Williams opted for the posts and Gwyn Parks atoned for missing the earlier conversion to make it 8-0 to the Archers.
Nottingham spent the remainder of the half pinned in their own territory but, thanks to some resolute defending, including a glorious chop tackle by Parks on the veteran Semesa Rokoduguni, Doncaster struggled to make serious inroads. That was until Sam Green, on the field for six minutes in place of Kody Vereti, who had to leave for a HIA, got sent to the bin for playing the nine after having already been warned. Morgan Strong eventually capitalised after 31 minutes and Alex Dolly brought Doncaster to within one point.
A series of offsides from Nottingham allowed Doncaster to maintain field position but, with Vereti reintroduced to the action The Archers were able to see it out to half-time at 8-7.
The Knights started the second half how they finished the first and, after a few pick-and-goes wide left, three former Archers combined as Dolly passed to Morgan Bunting who, in turn, found Jordan Olowofela to cross under the posts. The scrum half added the extras to put Doncaster ahead for the first time, 14-8.
After Parks was yellow-carded for an intentional knock-on around the 50 minute mark the home side were once again pressuring the Nottingham try line, but Harry Graham intercepted a pass practically under his own crossbar and ran the length of the pitch to score. With the fly-half off the field Williams assumed kicking duties but his conversion attempt from in front of the posts was charged down by Maliq Holden.
Midway through the second half Donny looked to run it out of defence but when Olowefela was closed down he kicked to touch, however it had been taken back in to the 22, so the lineout for Nottingham was only 20 metres out. Substitute prop Ale Loman made inroads towards the five metre line before Charlie Myall’s quick feet carved an opening to set up Tom Manz to plunder a try. Matt Arden, having replaced Parks after the sin bin, converted to put The Archers back into the lead.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, Olowofela, the home full back, was involved in the action once more as he was dragged into his own in-goal area. With Nottingham’s replacement forwards now in the ascendancy the away side won a penalty from the ensuing scrum. The kicking tee was sent on and Arden made it a two score game.
Five minutes later, playing with penalty advantage close to the Donny goal line gave Nottingham the confidence to go through the hands. The ball eventually reached Graham wide left via Kegan Christian-Goss and Myall and he dived over under pressure to claim the try bonus point.
Doncaster pushed to take something from the game in the closing stages but Nottingham eventually won another scrum penalty 10 metres from their own try line after stopping a Knights maul, and were able to see out a fantastic victory.
Nottingham lock, Sam Green, on the mood in the squad: “It’s pumping in the dressing room. The boys would have been stoked to come away with a win by one point but to come away with five points is something that we plan for but we don’t expect, so we’re really proud of ourselves.”
On his impact on the game (and yellow card): “It was a bit of a rush to get on because Kody Vereti had taken a knock. We’d been defending for a good fifteen minutes, it was one of those ones where there had been a build up of penalties then there was a bit of a brain fart from myself! But I managed to get back on fairly early in the second half and get going again and make a bit of a difference, especially at the end, getting through that maul.”
On his fellow impact players: “As a bench we really want to bring some impact and I thought, today, we did that. The boys in the front row coming on and throwing themselves into the set piece, which was crucial. Toby Venner and Matt Arden changing the tempo of the game. We’ve got a good squad and not everyone can be in that starting 15 but we can add a lot of value and that’s what we did today.”