Doncaster Knights 33 Birmingham & Solihull 14: Howells building blocks to combat finances

A tightening of the purse strings in a tough economic climate affected budgets so drastically in the summer that players and coaching staff were encouraged to take on part-time jobs to fill their weeks.

Such a mentality shift was always going to be difficult to adjust to in a second tier that suffers an imbalance between professional and semi-professional clubs. However, after Doncaster earned their third win of the season in relatively straightforward circumstances, their Welsh director of rugby explained that it required a home defeat against Moseley last month to make him realise how best to address the situation.

"Last year we had three full days to prepare the players for a match – this year we're having to cram everything into what amounts to two days of training," said Howells, whose team consolidated seventh position with victory.

"But that's not just the training; you've got to do your video analysis of the previous game, your analysis of the next opponents, and your conditioning.

"And I wasn't get it right at first and I put my hands up for the Moseley defeat. We crammed everything into two days of training and the lads were knackered from the first whistle.

"So I've now put a cycle in place where we cover everything playing-wise in a six-week period. For example, one week we'll work on our kicking and then we won't touch that again for six weeks, unless we have a real shocker at the weekend and we'll address that as best we can in the week.

"The lads have taken to it really well. They tend to do a bit of conditioning work in their own time and if they do that we give them a programme to follow so they are at least doing what we want.

"It has helped focus the players minds more on the rugby. They look forward to coming in to play rugby and are fresher. It's been a challenge for all of us, but an exciting one."

One of those who has benefitted from the chance to pursue another career outside of rugby is Knights winger Matt Williams, the jet-heeled 22-year-old who scored two tries at pivotal moments to help Doncaster secure the bonus-point win against the plucky bottom-markers.

"It's never been all about the rugby for me," said the former Sale Sharks junior, who has a degree in architecture from the University of Liverpool.

"I'm now able to work for a local architecture firm in Doncaster to help further my career off the field."

On the field Williams was twice handily placed to finish two moves that built a platform for victory.

Firstly, after Tomasi Tanumi had established an 8-0 lead for the visitors by finishing off a well-worked try and slotting over a first-minute penalty, Williams galloped down the left flank to score after a superb break from inside his own 22 by influential centre Oli Goss.

Then, after playing a fortuitous role in Chris Hallam's try, this time following a stunning break from Stevie McColl, Williams broke down the left in the 73rd minute after a clever lay-off from Christian Lewis-Pratt, Doncaster's dual-registered Leeds fly-half on as a replacement for Tristan Roberts, who slotted two drop goals in a 13-point haul.

"I'm just the fortunate one who gets to finish off the good work of the rest of the team," said a young man whose pace is rooted in his sprinting days as a schoolboy.

Replacement hooker Steve Lawrie secured the bonus point when he crashed over four minutes from time.

Doncaster: McColl, Flockhart, Goss, Gidlow, Williams (Wright 77), Roberts (Lewis-Pratt 71), Hallam; Corsar (Frazier 57), Boden (Lawrie 69), Thiede, Challinor, Kenworthy (Parsons 74), Boyde (Farivarz 65), Cochrane, Jackson. Unused replacement: Jericevich.

Birmingham: Foden (Winter 77), Tanumi, Grove, Lawson (Binham 77), Culpin, Robinson (Barkley 60), Petty; Dugard (Reid 77), McMillan (Preece 60), Tau (Sperando 54), Tualava, Griffiths, Bentall, Denbee, Clayton (Connolly 47).

Referee: P Knowles.

Scorers

Doncaster: tries Williams 2, Halla, Lawrie, cons Roberts 2; pens Roberts; d goals Roberts 2.

Birmingham: tries Tanumi; pens Tanumi 3.