Doncaster Knights not panicking despite stuttering start to Champ Rugby season

Yorkshire’s highest team up the union pyramid have made no secret of the fact that after passing the Rugby Football Union’s minimum standards criteria to gain promotion to the Premiership in each of the past four seasons, they would now like to cash that chip in.

Yet they have failed to live up to that ambition on the pitch, winning just two of their opening seven games in the expanded 14-team division. The reintroduction of play-offs for the top six teams to determine who can challenge for promotion means their season is far from over.

But after three straight defeats it is in need of a jolt, starting today at Castle Park against a Coventry side who are also finding that living up to expectations is not easy.

After their last home appointment three weeks ago, a disappointing defeat to Chinnor, head coach Fearn led the team in some “honest conversations” and although their losing run continued at runaway leaders Ealing Trailfinders the following weekend, Doncaster at least produced a response.

“We’d like to have won the game but there was definitely improvement off the back of the Chinnor game down at Ealing,” said Fearn of the 35-21 defeat.

“The commitment, the desire was there, we went after it, we just coughed up some easy possession and probably didn’t exit as well as we’d have wanted to.

“We’re pretty level-headed with it all. There’s no excuses here but there’s context to everything.

“We need to get some consistency within our performance, get some consistency within our squad, go out there and show what we know we can do.

“The reason I’m level-headed with it all is because as much as you can look at the league table (Doncaster sit 11th), there is a lot of context with the injuries we’ve had.

“You take the Chinnor result out of it – which wasn’t good enough from this group – we’ve picked up some good points on the road, two wins at home.”

Fearn – who is working alongside director of rugby Sir Ian McGeechan – insists the mood in the Knights camp is buoyant as they look to capitalise on a Coventry side that is only two places better off.

“We’ve gone after it again this week because this is Coventry team that will be chomping at the bit,” said Fearn.

“Two teams in a similar league position, so it’s one of those where we’ve both just got to concentrate on ourselves.

“They’ll be coming here with confidence on the back of getting five points after a big win against Ampthill.They’ve got some good players, they’ll be well-drilled up front. I saw them against Ampthill, they ran amok, they like to keep the ball alive. They’ll be coming here to move the ball and take us on in the set-piece. But we’ll be braced for them.

“We’ve worked hard this week, we’ve got a plan and we’ll be looking to go out there and execute that.”

After a week off, today’s game marks the first of a block of six that takes the Knights all the way through to January 3.

“There’s 30 points available in this next block, how many can we get this week from a very tough Coventry team?” asked Fearn.

“It’s a chance to build momentum on and off the field. Hopefully we can get some lads back and that will bring a bit of consistency.”

Logovi’i Mulipola, Jasper McGuire and Josh Bainbridge are all back from injury today, which reinforces Fearn’s belief.