Doncaster Knights v Hartpury FC: Why coach Steve Boden wants his players to think like table-toppers

The surprise Championship leaders are looking to strengthen their grasp on pole position today when Hartpury visit Castle Park. A shock loss for promotion favourites Ealing Trailfinders at home to Bedford Blues has left the South Yorkshire club out in front of the rest as the competition enters its crucial final stages.

Admittedly, although Ealing have slipped to third, they are just three points behind Doncaster and have two games in hand.

However, they visit second-placed Jersey Reds today before hosting Knights in a week’s time.

With just four games to go in the fight for the solitary promotion slot, Doncaster almost came unstuck last week before eventually securing an injury-time 33-30 win at lowly Richmond.

Boden admitted: “It’s nice that we are talked about at this position. We are over-achieving from where we wanted to be.

“We have a small, young squad and we are really happy with how it’s gone. But we had a good chat this week and a bit of a reset. The Richmond game was a bit of an eye-opener and a reality check. We’ve gone from a young side, who people have said they’re not expecting a great deal from, to top of the league.

“How we now handle that pressure and how we approach it is key.

“We have to behave like we’re a side that’s a top side; how we behaved at the weekend probably wasn’t that of a top-four team.

“We’ve talked about it as a group this week and it’s the players who led it – not the staff – and they came up with the right answers.

“What’s got us to this stage where we’re capable of winning something is all these things that aren’t very flash: hard work, work ethic, training standards and the sacrifice we’ve put in and not the flash bits.

“We’ve been concentrating too much on the flash bits the last couple of weeks but I’m hoping this is a good reset ahead of Hartpury who have a hell of a side.”

Boden added: “Hartpury pushed Jersey at home and they have a hell of a side with some unbelievable athletes.

“It’s fantastic to be in a postition to win something at this stage of the season.

“We were lucky to win last weelend but we fought to the death. That sums us up.

“We had 19 phases in the last minute of the game to get the bonus-point win. A different result and we’d be out the mix.

“We got it wrong as well as a staff. We looked at that game and that’s not disrespect to any other teams but we got a bit fixated with that Ealing game and the players gave us some feedback, saying let’s go one game at a time.

“We agreed with it. We’re going back to that now.”