Doncaster Knights 27 Plymouth Albion 16: New man at helm Davey is given an early lift

DONCASTER Knights' head coach for next season, Brett Davey, will be able to start planning from a position of strength.

Saturday's home win has virtually ensured Doncaster a place in the promotion play-offs unless there are some very strange results over the next three weeks.

Davey will replace Lynn Howells as director of rugby from May as the latter stands by his decision to step down at the end of the season.

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Davey moved from the top job at Cornish Pirates to become assistant to Howells, who has mentored him over the last two years towards the top job at Castle Park.

Davey, whose playing career took him from Beddau to Bristol, via a successful spell at Pontypridd when they were a senior Welsh club, said: "I place a lot of pride in doing this job and feel that being here now, rather than arriving in the summer, gives me a head start on the 2011-12 season. I'm absolutely delighted to be given this opportunity and look to next season with a lot of optimism."

Howells added: "I made it known I felt he had the knowledge and now the experience to step up to a director of rugby role. The club went through a rigorous interview process with candidates and I feel they have made a good choice."

Howells saw Saturday's game as one containing three distinct parts.

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Knights made a thrilling start and an even more exciting finish though Plymouth were on top in the middle section of a Championship match that was crucial for both clubs in terms of them reaching the play-offs.

Knights went into the lead in the opening minute with a penalty by fly-half Tristan Roberts, who, a couple of minutes later, scored his seventh try of the season when Plymouth failed for clear his attacking chip ahead and he was on hand to gather the loose ball and dive over.

His conversion put the Knights ahead by 10 points with less than five minutes played.

If the Knights thought that Plymouth were going to be a pushover, however, the visitors had other ideas as flanker Rory Watts-Jones dodged his way through some poor Knights defence to race over only a couple of minutes later to score his side's opening try that was converted by fly-half Alex Davies.

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Although the Knights returned to the attack, they were unable to breach Plymouth's resolute defence and the visitors gradually came back more into the game.

Such was the supremacy of both side's defences that the only scoring in the rest of the half came from penalties, two each by Roberts and Davies.

Plymouth started well in the second half and they had several scoring opportunities, mainly originating from mistakes by the Knights.

However, to the credit of the Knights, their scramble defence worked and they managed to keep the visitors out.

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After 53 minutes, the Knights lost centre PJ Gidlow to the sin-bin after he had stopped Plymouth's Canadian international No 8 Aaron Carpenter dead in his tracks with a crashing tackle but then blotted his copybook by offending at the resulting ruck.

From this offence, Davies kicked the penalty and it was all square at 16-all.

Knights managed to survive their period of being a man short through some excellent defence but they were still on the defensive when Andy Wright came on for Gidlow when his sin-bin period finished.

After surviving what seemed a long onslaught on their own line from lineouts and driving mauls from the Plymouth pack, the Knights managed to turn over possession and they moved it along their goal line to Wright, who raced through the Albion defence on a thrilling 80 metre run which was only stopped inside the visitors' 22.

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However, this lifted Knights spirits and, with Roberts now dictating proceedings, the same player kicked a penalty when Plymouth offended.

Now it was all Knights and they extended their lead when Wright crashed over from close in.

Although Roberts missed the conversion, he extended the Knights lead to 11 points with a penalty from in front of the posts with the final kick of the game.

The result left Doncaster comfortably placed in sixth position in the Championship, 16 points clear of ninth-placed Bristol, 12 clear of Plymouth, whom they have a game in hand on, and seven points ahead of Rotherham Titans, whom they meet on Saturday.

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Doncaster: McColl, Flockhart, Briers, Gidlow (Wright 66), Williams, Roberts, Jones, Corsar (Thiede 66), Lawrie (Boden 56), Cusack, Kenworthy, Parsons (Challinor 50), Farivarz (Makaafi 45), Jackson, Cochrane. Unused: Hampson, Goss.

Plymouth: Hallett (McLoughlin 46), Mercer, Fisilau, Tuipulotu, Mitchell, Davies, Kessell (Cushion 77), Porter, Evans, Hopkins (Morton 78), Collier (Sprangle 78), Skelding (Copeland 77), Stephen, Carpenter, Watts-Jones. Unused: Johns, Freestone.