Doncaster Knights

The rise to National League One, from amateur status led to the rebranding of Doncaster RFC to Doncaster Knights for the 2006–07 season, and that season saw their highest placed finish to date under Clive Griffiths as Director of Rugby. Doncaster also won the Yorkshire Cup.

After the departure of Griffiths to Worcester, the current DOR Lynn Howells joined the club on the eve of the 2007–08 season. Justin Bishop, signed from London Irish, had acted as DOR during the pre-season.

Howells inspired the Knights to almost repeat the 3rd-place finish in his first season in charge, and has moulded the squad in his own image for the 2008–09 season. 9 January saw the opening of the new De Mulder-Lloyd Stand at Castle park, a £3m state of the art 1650 seater stand. Driven by CEO James Criddle and funded by Tony De Mulder and Steve Lloyd this has seen Castle Park develop into undoubtedly the best rugby facility in South Yorkshire.

The home of the Knights, Castle Park, featured in and won "4 Weddings" and also hosted the Northern BBC TV news coverage for Remembrance Day during 2009 showing how for the operational side of the club has come supporting the on the pitch success.

The 2009–10 season saw the squad decimated by injuries, with no fewer than 15 unavailable players at one stage from a squad of 32. Despite this, and an inhuman 9 games in 27 days (of which they won 8) the Knights managed the Semi Final of the British and Irish Cup and a promotion Play Off finish. The result of the season being the defeat of Bristol at Castle Park, who like Leeds Carnegie before them underestimated the Knights as home.

The 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons were very average seasons with the Knights managing mid table status and avoiding the relegation playoffs with a reduction in playing budget meaning a shuffling of the pack which saw several long serving players move on to other clubs. The captures of the likes of Tristan Roberts and Paul Devlin hinted at a more creative side than the powerhouse forward game Doncaster are known for traditionally.

The 2012–13 season saw the Knights have a disappointing season with only three wins and a draw out of twenty two league matches and two wins from six in the British and Irish Cup competition which resulted in relegation (for the first time in Doncaster history) back to National League 1. One of the few highlights being a win over local rivals Leeds Carnegie 23 – 17 in February 2013.

For the 2013–14 season DOR Clive Griffiths signed a variety of new and returning players including Mat Clark, Paul Jarvis, Bevon Armitage, Roberto Santamaria and Bruno Bravo who would all feature as regulars in the coming season. The season looked to begin badly for the Knights as they were once again plagued by injuries particularly in the forwards but still with an intention to be the first team to secure promotion back to the Championship at the first time of asking. The Knights started strongly recording seven straight wins before losing away to Henley Hawks 11–10 [1] in a close fought game. The Knights campaign continued strongly at home although with away losses to Blaydon and Wharfedale they could not fully pull away from the following pack. With further signings during the year, such as former British Lion Darren Morris,[2] London Irish back row Danny Kenny,[3] Argentinian-Italian prop Santiago Sodini[4] and the return of former Knight Richard List from RC Narbonne[5] to bolster the injury prone team, the Knights continued to be the team to beat having been top of the table for the majority of the season.

In late March 2014 with only four games left to play of the season there were only two teams (Rosslyn Park & the Knights) left with the potential to win the league and with them due to meet on 29 March many thought this could be the most important match of the season. The game resulted in a win for Rosslyn Park[6] and meant the Knights would need to win all three of their remaining matches to guarantee promotion. With a win over Wharfedale (57–17) at home to secure a 100% home win record for the season followed by away wins against Coventry (17–18) & Blackheath (20–38) the Knights secured promotion back to the Championship despite having lost one more game than Rosslyn Park (having achieved more bonus points to be three points clear).

During the 2013–14 season Tyson Lewis was the top try scorer for National League 1 with 22 tries and his teammate Mat Clark was equal second on 20 tries. Tyson also achieved Guinness World Record fame for "The fastest time to score a try in a rugby union match".[7] The try was scored direct from the opening kick off in 7.24 seconds (Doncaster Knights vs Old Albanians at Wollam Playing Fields, St Albans, UK, on 23 November 2013).

Doncaster Knights

• Yorkshire Cup winners (4): 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008
• North East 2 Champions: 1992-93
• North East 1 Champions: 1993-94
• North Division 2 champions: 1996–97
• North Division 1 champions: 1998–99
• National League 3 North champions: 2001–02
• National League 1 (formerly National Division 2) champions (2): 2004–05, 2013–14

[8]

Doncaster Phoenix (amateur side)

• Yorkshire 6 champions: 1999–00
• Yorkshire 5 runners-up: 2000-01
• Yorkshire 4 runners-up: 2005-06
• Yorkshire 2 runners-up: 2012-13
• Yorkshire 1 champions: 2014–15
• North 1 East champions: 2015–16

The Doncaster Knights squad for the 2020–21 season is:[9] Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Will Holling Hooker England Ben Hunter Hooker England Charlie Beech Prop England Ben Betts Prop Ireland Andrew Foster Prop England Tom Hill Prop New Zealand Robin Hislop Prop Scotland Joe Jones Prop Wales Colin Quigley Prop Scotland Joe Sproston Prop England Matt Challinor Lock England Tom Hicks Lock England Matt Smith Lock England Tom Calladine Back row England Jack Davies Back row England Sam Graham Back row England Michael Hills Back row England Sam Jones Back row England Conor Joyce Back row Ireland Rory Pitman Back row Wales Ollie Stedman Back row England

Player Position Union Reiss Cullen Scrum-half Scotland James Mitchell Scrum-half England Sam Pocklington Scrum-half England Billy McBryde Fly-half Wales Kurt Morath Fly-half Tonga Sam Olver Fly-half England Mark Best Centre Ireland Charlie Foley Centre England Lloyd Hayes Centre England Pete Lucock Centre England James Newey Centre Ireland Kyle Evans Wing Wales Dougie Flockhart Wing Scotland James Kane Wing Australia Tyson Lewis Wing England Curtis Wilson Wing England Cameron Cowell Fullback England Steve McColl Fullback Scotland Howard Packman Fullback England

• Internationally capped players in bold. Their nationality is fixed to international team (World Rugby regulations).
• Players qualified to play for England on residency or dual nationality. *
• In all cases nationality shown is the country that the player represents in international rugby union.
• Notes:

* Season shortened to 20 games due to London Welsh going into liquidation and being removed from the league by the RFU.

• Official website