Griffiths happy to play the underdog

The rivals side meet at Headingley tomorrow night for the first time this season with Carnegie up to second having won all but one of of their eight league fixtures so far. Doncaster, however, are struggling for the same sort of consistency having surprised everyone to reach the play-off final last season with a best-ever finish of second.

They picked up a 29-23 win over London Scottish in their last outing, though, so sit in fourth while their derby opponents suffered their first loss at leaders London Irish.

Griffiths told The Yorkshire Post: “We’re probably underdogs going there like we were in the first leg of the play-offs last season and when we played and won at Headingley a couple of years ago. That’s probably because of all the resources Leeds (Carnegie) have, their structure including the academy there and the size of their playing squad, too.

“It’s no surprise that the top three teams at the moment (Ealing are third) – are the biggest spenders in the Championship.

“We go with no fear, though. That’s not me being smart; I just know we’ll go play and the boys will do their best win, lose or draw.

“I’m pretty confident we’ve got a group of players that play for each other and will fight for each other. Yorkshire will know that as (Ollie) Stedman’s there now and he knows it.”

Hard-running No 8 Stedman, of course, left Doncaster in the summer to return to Carnegie and has started to find some form.

He played in the 41-17 loss at Irish with Ryan Burrows – Carnegie’s best player and the Championship Dream Team No 8 last season – again switched to blindside flanker to accommodate him.

“I don’t think it’s the best combination for Yorkshire but that’s just my opinion,” added Griffiths, who, with injury worries over a raft of his own back-rows will give Jarad Williams his second start since moving the other way from Carnegie.

“For us, with Jarad, the more he plays, the better he’ll be. Hopefully he’ll have one of those games where he returns to his former club and everything works out for him but it’ll be a big challenge for him on Friday.”

Griffiths does not feel Carnegie’s confidence will be knocked by that heavy loss at Irish.

He said: “I don’t think it will to be honest.

“We left the Madejski ourselves earlier this season having been beaten but knowing we’d not taken our chances.

“They will be the same but they’ll be working on what went wrong just like we have,” said Griffiths.

“It’s going to be tough up there at Headingley but both teams can play and attack.

“They have some really good backs, as do we, and it’s all set-up for a decent game.”

Meanwhile, Doncaster have announced a special ticket initiative for the Sky-televised Championship game against Cornish Pirates on Sunday, November 27 (2pm). Admission will be just £1 if tickets are bought via the club’s online ticketing system before midnight on November 24.