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Doncaster’s greatest claim to fame is that, for close on a hundred years, it
was the home of the Great Northern Railway’s Locomotive and Carriage
Building Works, where both the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard were built.
Doncaster RFC was founded in 1875 and its recent history almost beggars
belief. Eight promotions in fifteen years were obtained from the obscurities
of the Yorkshire leagues up to National League One in 2005-06. In the 2006/7
season the club achieved a creditable tenth place and last season improved
that to runners up. This remarkable achievement was recognised by the
National Lottery a couple of years ago, when the club received a grant of
£1.8m to build a spanking new club house at Castle Park.
More recently a decision was made to brand the team Doncaster Knights as the
basis of a marketing strategy aimed at increasing awareness of the club in
the South Yorkshire Region. The club has also established the Doncaster
Inclusive, Rugby, Education and Community Trust to deliver rugby themed
programmes of work to increase participation, raise aspirations through
social inclusion, improve health and provide educational opportunities for
young people in the Doncaster area. (Very similar to Moseley’s own more
extensive programmes – Ed)
The results of Doncaster’s last four games have been:
26th January v Bees L 20 - 22
10th February v Northampton L 10 - 36
16th February v Sedgley Park W 41 - 12
1st March v Plymouth Albion W 15 - 11
The Knights currently stand in fourth place in the National League One
table, having won eighteen of the twenty-four matches played so far. Moseley
will have to be on very good form to achieve a result on Saturday,
especially since last season, 2006-07, Doncaster won 48-12 at Billesley and
27-11 at Castle Park and 18-11 in the corresponding fixture this season last
November at Billesley.
Doncaster does not have the pedigree of the historic clubs in National
League One - Bedford, Coventry, London Welsh, Northampton and Moseley - but
this is of little consequence in the modern era. If Moseley’s revival
ambitions are to be met, Doncaster is just the sort of club which has to be
beaten home and away, on a routine basis. It a measure of the challenge the
club faces.
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