Knights fighting hard despite their half rations
After doing a “Leicester City” in 2021/22, Doncaster have found it tough to back up last year's second-place finish in the current Championship campaign.
Operating within their means on a realistic full-time Championship budget, the Knights' squad was always going to feel the squeeze if injuries took hold but no one could have foreseen the extent of their problems on that front.
Half of what would be considered the first-team matchday squad have been sidelined for three months or more and director of rugby Steve Boden was frantically trying to bolster his squad for the remainder of the season before Friday's transfer deadline, but to no avail.
Had they not been able to get free agent, Jake Pope in at prop, the Knights would have been struggling to fulfil their front row requirements such is the scale of the injury crisis.
“We've had a lot of injuries and it tough recruiting people at the minute but it is what it is,” said Boden, the former Doncaster and Jersey hooker, below.
“I've never known anything like it. We're down to the bare bones and I've been scrambling around trying to get someone in on loan. I rang up every single Premiership club, Leinster and Scarlets, Dragons and Ospreys.
“The main reason we have had the season we've had is that it's been very disjointed.
“From week two. I pretty much lost a whole front row. All the injuries were minimum 12-week injuries apart from Ehize Ehizode, who had a concussion. We've had an average of 12 players out since round four. The backline that's playing at the moment, that's pretty much played every game. We are having to manage them very carefully from week to week to get them through games.”
The lack of money in the Championship at all bar a couple of clubs makes recruitment very hard in the current climate, especially as a lot of players in their mid-20s and beyond do not consider full-time professional rugby to be a viable proposition any more.
It is, therefore, no surprise to see the part-time clubs in the division – the Ampthills and Caldys of this world – punching above their weight.
The Knights have found it hard to replace players who stepped up into the Premiership such as player of the season and captain Sam Graham and Spain international Josh Peters.
Doncaster are victims of their own success in a way; going neck-for-neck with Ealing Trailfinders in the title race has raised expectations.
As ever, Boden is a realist. “We were like Leicester City last year. We won more league games than anyone else despite not spending up to budget and we should have won the league. We were top of the league after our last game of the season. Ealing had to beat Richmond to win the league.
“Because we have a Premiership facility, people automatically think we want to get promoted and we must be spending shedloads of money. That's definitely not the case.
“It raised people's expectations but we lost six of our best players – four to the Premiership and two because we couldn't afford to keep them.
“Last year, we beat Richmond, Ampthill and Hartpury and we won all three games in the 80th minute. Had we not done that, we'd have probably ended up in fifth. That's how fine the margins are.
“I reckon if we'd have the majority of our players for the majority of the season, I think we'd have been top four this year.
“If we can finish in the top six, and we have got the semi-final of a Cup to play, I think it'll have been a very good season for what has gone on this year.”
