Doncaster Knights keep Premiership thoughts close to chest after eye-catching summer of recruitment

Last season, for instance, Doncaster Knights were the only club out of 12 who made themselves eligible to meet the Rugby Football Union’s strict minimum standards criteria for promotion, despite the fact they were nowhere near top spot and in the middle of a coaching change.

After winning the latest round of brinkmanship between the Premiership and Championship earlier this year by refusing to accept the governing body’s ‘Premiership 2’ proposals, the Championship clubs have at least forced a loosening of the criteria and a two-legged play-off between the bottom of the Premiership and the top of the Championship will determine who plays in the top flight in the 2025/26 season.

So this new season dawns with promotion back on the table, even if the odds would be stacked heavily against the team that wins the Championship defeating a far-better resourced team that props up the Premiership.

Doncaster Knights, Yorkshire’s leading club on the pyramid, have long-term ambitions to make it to the Premiership but as owner Steve Lloyd has often told this newspaper, they will not mortgage their future to do so.

Their recruitment this off-season points to a team hoping to challenge for the Championship title, and while head coach Joe Ford insists they have not broken the budget in doing so, he is certainly not one of those coaches shouting his ambitions from the rooftops.

“One game at a time, that’s the only target,” said Ford who succeeded Steve Boden in January after the then-head coach left the club and the sport (he has since resurfaced on the coaching staff at Coventry after a stint at Otley) in frustration at the direction of the sport.

“We see it every year in the Championship where there’s a few upsets and teams come unstuck so we can’t look past Ampthill.

“Let’s try and get a good performance and see where that takes us.

“There’s a buzz around the place but if you ask the other 11 clubs there’s probably a buzz around their place because no one has played a game yet.

“We’re very cautious, we just want to get Ampthill out the way, put in a good performance here and then we’ll look at Nottingham and then we’ll look at Ealing. That’s how we’re going to approach it this year.”

Doncaster’s recruitment has been eye-catching. Samoan Logovi’ Mulipola, former Leicester player Jordan Olowofela, prop Andrew Turner on loan from Bath and the former England wing Semesa “Roko” Rokoduguni, to name a few. Just this week, Tongan international Telusa Veainu joined the club.

“I like the way that he’s heading with this team and what direction Joe is trying to get to,” said the 33-year-old.

“I like what he’s trying to do here at the club. With the coaches that we’ve got here, obviously Joey leading, everything is clear and he knows where his true north is.”

Ford had an ace up his sleeve when it came to recruitment, his director of rugby Sir Ian McGeechan.

“He’s been incredible,” said Ford. “He’s obviously got a really good link with Pat Lamb at Bristol which helped in getting Andrew Turner, who’s won a Super Rugby medal, here.

“Geech has been incredible not only for myself but for everyone at Doncaster, and he’s so much a part of what we’re trying to do at Doncaster.

“The list of players we’ve brought in could go on, and coupled with the core group of lads who stayed with us, the likes of Connor Edwards, George Roberts, Ben Murphy, Alex Dolly etc, who all know what we’re about, then hopefully we’ll be in a good place.

“We’ll find out for sure on Saturday but I’ve been really impressed with how they’ve come together. That’s been the main focus of pre-season, getting tight as a unit because obviously with that big turnover of players we’re behind a number of other teams on that.

“We’re running under last year’s budget at the moment, we’ve had a bit of help with a couple of loan lads from Bath and Bristol which allows you to spend the budget elsewhere.

“But look, we’re just going to go one game at a time, we can’t look past Ampthill because they beat us twice last year.

“They’re a really good side and who knows who they’re going to get in from Saracens, so we can’t afford to look past that.”