Doncaster Knights’ director of rugby Clive Griffiths praised his team’s “massive heart and desire,” after last weekend’s 17-15 British and Irish Cup win over Bedford Blues 17-15 at Goldington Road.
It was Knights’ fourth win in as many starts in the competition to keep them top of Pool D.
So the club go into their toughest B&I match to date at Cornish Pirates on Saturday in good spirits, knowing that one more win in their two remaining group games would take them into the quarter-finals.
The Bedford win got Knights back to winningways after three successive league defeats and Griffiths said: “The players showed massive heart and desire.”
“Apart from when they scored when we were down to 14 men our defence was as good as it has been all season.”
Griffiths included two of his three midweek signings on the bench but decided against playing Welsh prop WillGriff John.
“We just felt that it was a bit too early for both WillGriff and Villiame (Veikoso) but we had to play the latter because if we had picked up injuries we could have been short of cover at hooker.” he said.
Griffiths hinted both men, along with New Zealand-based fly-half Piers Francis, could be involved at Pirates and he could also have another new face on duty.
Knights took an early 3-0 lead courtesy of the boot of wing Dougie Flockhart. Bedford suffered a blow on 14 minutes when stand-in skipper Paul Tupai was sin-binned. The ref lost patience with the Blues after several untidy scrums and awarded Knights a penalty try which Flockhart goaled to give his side a 10-0 lead.
Prop Camilo Parillo-Ocampo went close to scoring as 14-man Bedford laid siege to Doncastere. Bedford pressure eventually paid off, Hayden Thompson-Stringer touching down from a rolling maul to make it 5-10. Full-back James Pritchard failed to add the extras and also missed with a penalty attempt in the second half. His opposite number, Paul Jarvis, gave the visitors breathing space two minutes later, collecting a loose ball and racing in for a converted try from 50 metres out.
Bedford were not ready to throw in the towel and Pritchard cut the deficit to nine points at the end of the third quarter. Knights suffered a double blow – Palu being sin-binned and centre Henry Staff dummied his way over for a converted try to make it 15-17.
Knights: Jarvis, Flockhart, Catchpole, Armitage, Lewis, Roberts, Palu, List, Hunter, Pasquali, Challinor, Phelan, Foden, Hills, Shaw. Replacements: Quigley, Bergmanas, Eggleshaw, Makaafi, Veikoso, Francis, Bravo.
Bedford: Pritchard, Tapley,Staff, Hakalo, Ellery, Mordt, Veenendaal, Williams, TJ Harris, Parilli-Ocampo, Wells, Gulliver, Tupai, Blanchet, Thompson-Stringer. Replacements: Clare,Johnny Harris, Currie, Howard, Buggea, White, Sharp.
Attendance: 2,000