Doncaster Knights keep their eyes on the prize as Premiership dream edges closer

From the matchday catering staff who serve pints of beer and a wedge of cow pie underneath the De Mulder Lloyd Stand, to the scores of junior players and coaches who attend training sessions on the adjacent pitches most weeknights, talk of their club playing Premiership rugby is on the tip of every one’s tongue.

That is because the Knights’ first team could be just two bonus-point wins away from taking their place in an expanded 14-team Premiership in 2022-23.

Doncaster’s 25-17 win at Ealing Trailfinders on Saturday moved them seven points clear of the pre-season promotion favourites in the race for the one spot left at next year’s top table.

Cornish Pirates – like Doncaster a long-established team in English rugby’s second tier – are sandwiched in between on 63 points, three more than Ealing, four fewer than Doncaster. The fly in the cow pie, though, is that both Ealing and Cornish have two more games to play than Doncaster, and 10 points more to win.

“One of them has got to drop points though, because they’ve got to play each other,” points out Steve Boden, the Knights head coach. “And we’ve still got to play Pirates.”

Indeed they do, on Saturday week at home, meaning for all the gathering excitement, the dreaming of Saracens and Leicester Tigers rocking up at Castle Park, there is still so much work to do.

“It’s like the elephant in the room, you don’t want to speak about it,” says Boden of the possibility of promotion.

“What people need to realise is that stuff has got to go our way. All we can do is win.

“There’s a lot of stuff out of our control. We’ve got to beat Pirates, Pirates need to beat Ealing and they both need to drop points somwhere by not picking up a five-pointer.

“It can easily happen, but we’ve got to look after ourselves. I know it’s a boring old cliche but it’s what we’ve tried to do all year; not get distracted, concentrate on each week, keep performing.

“It’s worked for us all year, it would be stupid to take our eye off it now.”

Doncaster have been close before. Six years ago they reached the Championship play-off final and lost to Bristol having already announced they would not take their place in the Premiership.

This time they will. This time they are ready.

“We’ve applied for the audit from the RFU,” says Boden of the criteria clubs need to meet to join the Premiership. “We wouldn’t have applied for it if we didn’t want to go up, that’s a statement in itself.”

The fact they are even in with a chance owes much to the club’s benefactors, believes Boden.

“It’s testament to Steve Lloyd and Tony De Mulder, not just because we’re competing at the right end of the league but the sustainability comes from the passion of the area,” he said.

“They care about Doncaster, they care about the juniors, the youth section and the women’s team as much as they do the first team.”