Doncaster Knights

One of Charles Windsor’s early jobs as King was to head north to Doncaster and give it a fresh new title of its own. After 800 or so years as a town, it was now a city. All it needs now, is for the local rugby club to gain the premier status it so richly deserves.

There’s much to get excited about in Doncaster these days. And it hits you as soon as you arrive at the art deco, grade-II listed train station. Not only are there local information signs telling you of its ‘sparking nightlife’, ‘shops to delight’ and ‘markets to enjoy’, the town (for it was a town back then) that gave us the Flying Scotsman, Jeremy Clarkson and the St Leger Stakes is now home to one of the UK’s longest urban murals. A curious – and perhaps slightly creepy, something about the eyes – depiction of miners, pit ponies, racehorses and doctors spreads 108 metres across the town centre’s Sainsbury’s. It’s certainly a statement. 

King Charles and his Queen Consort would undoubtedly have been impressed too, when they arrived in November, to officially proclaim Doncaster as a city, another big statement of intent from this 308,100-strong slice of South Yorkshire.

But, away from the hyperbole, royal visits and high art of the city centre, a bigger statement was made, in rugby circles at least, earlier this year when Doncaster Knights bridged a considerable budget-gap to beat Ealing Trailfinders both home (22-5) and away (17-25). They topped the RFU Championship table when they’d finished their campaign, and even finished the season with more wins than their rivals, but the small matter of games in hand meant that by the time Ealing drew their season to a close they were three points ahead. Credit where due, Ealing may have lost to Doncaster twice, but they blew other sides apart, helping to amass a 16-bonus point haul. 

Not many predicted Doncaster would be in that position, especially after losing two of their first three games [to Coventry and Bedford], but a phenomenal run of one defeat in seventeen matches took them to the top of the division. 

As last season drew to a close, Doncaster were champions-elect, but inside the dressing room, they were loath to discuss it. “It got to where it was an elephant in the room,” explains Steve Boden, Doncaster’s head coach. 

“We were typical, ‘head down, one game at a time’ kind of thing, but it got to the point where we needed to mention the fact we could actually win the league. It felt more strange that we weren’t talking about it. So, we spoke about it, we said, ‘we’re in the mix to do something special’ and ironically that probably took a weight off everyone’s shoulders, it was almost a sigh of relief.”

That both Doncaster and Ealing would be denied entry into the Premiership before the climax of the title race – arguably one of the most exciting the Championship has seen for some time – remains one of the more perplexing decisions by the RFU. Not least in its timing. 

“The Championship has struggled for exposure,” explains Steve. “It’s struggled for jeopardy since the play-offs stopped, and it’s struggled for that sort of massive TV moment and here we had it, us and Ealing going neck-and-neck, it was like a play-off game. Then we had [Cornish] Pirates right on our tails and Jersey still in the mix – a four-horse race to get into the Premiership.

“And then they [the RFU] came out the week after the Ealing game [won 17-25 by Doncaster] and said that neither club that had applied for Premiership status could go up. We found out an hour before a notice went out on Twitter, so we just had time to send a message on the players’ group. 

“Does that mean that we shouldn’t go on and perform? I’d like to think not, in terms of results and performance. Were there a few grumblings? Yeah, there were a few moans and groans, but they [the players] have a right to do that. But I think we’re a really stubborn bunch, we’re not going to bend that easily. We’re not going to say, ‘what’s the point?’ and give up.”

And to their credit, Doncaster finished the campaign with wins against title rivals Cornish Pirates [22-15 at home] and Nottingham [5-26 away]. 

Steve has enjoyed more than his fair share of highs and lows at Doncaster, having played for the club 195 times from 2005 until 2012, spanning both National One and the Championship, and both part-time (when he worked as a plumber) and full-time. He embarked on a coaching career as a forwards coach with Jersey Reds, then became head coach at Yorkshire Carnegie, managing to get them to the play-offs, a remarkable feat given what’s happened to the club since. When they went into administration, he returned to Doncaster in 2019 as forwards coach, and took over from head coach Clive Griffiths a year later. “The first year Clive was here we were top of the league at Christmas,” he recalls of his playing days, and the early dreams of top-flight rugby. “We were flying pretty high, we just needed a little bit more investment to sort of really push on, that’s when the murmuring [of the Premiership] started, and then Tony [De Mulder] and Steve [Lloyd] built the stand. There was only a small stand there before, the kind you’d see in Yorkshire One, about 300 people on a concrete block, but a lot of noise came out of it.” 

The ups and downs of both Steve’s former club and also Rotherham [who had two spells in the top division], have meant Yorkshire has never had the consistent Premiership presence many feel it deserves, especially given its catchment area and the depth of talent that resides within. Steve believes the consistency brought to Doncaster by president Steve Lloyd and executive chairman Tony De Mulder, has meant it’s been Yorkshire’s top club for far longer than people give it credit. 

“I think if you look at Yorkshire Carnegie and what they’ve been doing for the last however many years, they’re not really a rugby club. And I’ve worked there. There’s no foundation, they just had good finance from the university and the minute that was pulled out they were no more. So, I think Doncaster have been the premier club [in Yorkshire] for a long time. 

“But we’d love to have them [Leeds] back, because I think the derby games that we had were fantastic.”

When Steve took charge he overhauled the squad completely. “The first thing I wanted to change was the age demographic,” he continues, “so we’ve gone from perhaps having players arriving in their late-20s/30s, and switched them to younger, hungrier players with something to prove and put in a big ethos on teamwork.”

This season, there hasn’t been quite the overhaul of playing numbers, although eighteen have arrived and departed which is standard for most clubs, and gives him a squad of 36, topped up by the occasional loan player from Newcastle or Sale Sharks. He’s also kept his coaching staff small, just three senior coaches, coupled with two medical and a full-time strength and conditioning coach. “I think a small coaching team works better,” he says. “I think we’ve got probably the smallest squad out of the full-time sides [in the Championship], Coventry won’t be a million miles away from us, although Cornish Pirates are definitely bigger and then Jersey and Ealing are next level.

Doncaster have the best of both worlds: the facilities are comparable with the likes of Ealing, but they have the passion and crowd of clubs like Coventry. “We talk about this a lot,” says Steve. “We try and get more bang for our buck, we want to overachieve on the field. And we want it to be really professional, but we never want to lose the fact that it’s a rugby club. 

“Even if we get to the Premiership,” he continues, “I don’t think you should ever not be a rugby club. I think Tony and Steve are really passionate about that, having the lads going into the bar and having a drink with the supporters afterwards. There’s a good connection between the juniors and the first team too. On a Sunday you’ll come here and see the micro minis, kids aged about three upwards, on the first team pitch.”

If the club do reach the top flight, Doncaster’s ability to challenge Ealing has proven gulfs in finance can be overcome. “People say there’s a massive disparity between finance [between the Premiership and Championship],” says Steve. “Well, that’s because people are spending more than they can afford to spend, so it’s more about common sense. If we spent £4m more than we could afford, then that gap wouldn’t be anywhere near as big, but we don’t do that.”

The ‘common sense’ approach also applies to the pulling power of Premiership rugby in Doncaster. “Our boys and myself would like to think that if we got in the Premiership, yeah, all these people would want to watch us,” he begins. “But, I’ve got a funny feeling that there might be more attraction in coming to watch Marcus Smith and Manu Tuilagi play against us! No, I don’t think it’s a hard sell here at all. We’ve got no one to compete with in the county and it’s England biggest county, the best county in England. It’s not a hard sell.”

Match day proves a point. Today, Doncaster are hosting Bedford in the Championship Cup, a competition that to all intents and purposes feels like a huge wasted opportunity, given the similar lack of enthusiasm for the Premiership equivalent and yet an obvious thirst for pre-season clashes such as Bedford v Northampton, Exeter Chiefs v Cornish Pirates etc. 

Nonetheless, the crowd, kept well refreshed courtesy of ‘the Longest Bar in Yorkshire’ [71ft] and fuelled on chunky servings of chips, pie and gravy, are entertained with a contest that’s scrappy and skilful in equal measure, and sees the two sides deadlocked at 17-17 at half-time. 

The vast main stand, spacious enough to surely fit far more than the 1,698 it caters for, is bordered on one side by an all-weather pitch beyond terraced standing. Then there are temporary stands behind one set of posts, and the changing rooms, strength and conditioning, physio and conference facilities behind the other. More rugby pitches, for the assorted Doncaster minis and amateur sides, then sit beyond, ensuring that all Doncaster rugby union, amateur and professional, is within kicking distance of the first-team pitch. 

Team manager Neil Poole has traversed all six pitches of Doncaster, having been with club since juniors, playing senior rugby with the amateur side, Phoenix, and then going full-time in the professional backroom staff. “I’m Donny born and bred,” he says. “Doncaster used to be all about miners and railways, it’s always been a big industrial town, we had a big tractor factory in town, but that shipped out a few years ago. All the industry is gone now. We’ve got some IT companies here now, but the main town centre is pubs and clubs, a semi-decent nightlife.”

Sparkling? “That’s a matter of opinion, but you can have a cracking night out,” he says. But a club would be welcome. “The potential here is infinite,” he says. “Because there’s no one close by who’s at this level, so geographically, it’s all in our favour. The closest teams you’ve got are Newcastle to the north, Sale going west, there’s massive area to take advantage of.

“The less said about Rovers, the better,” he says of the city’s football club, currently tenth in League Two. “The rugby league side is no great shakes either, although they’ve got to their play-off final recently, but they’re not going to reach any great heights at the moment, so Doncaster is ripe for the picking sports-wise and we’re right at the head of the queue. I can’t wait to see where we are in five years’ time.”

In that time, the hope is that more Yorkshire-born players will find their way into the squad. Working closely with the RFU’s Regional Academy in Yorkshire – taken away from Yorkshire Carnegie following their demise in 2020 – the man charged with running Doncaster’s academy is Tyson Lewis, a former player who arrived at the club almost fourteen years ago, but retired three years ago. Naturally, the 37-year-old wing is on the bench today. “I was done three years ago, but during the summer a few of the lads had operations so I joined in pre-season.  Then it came to the cup and, again we had a few boys injured, so they asked me to play again – I played against London Scottish, Coventry and now Bedford.”

On to his day job though. “We’ve got 42 lads ranging from sixteen to open age, so we’ve got an AoC [Association of Colleges] side that participate in the Premier League of AoC and then we’ve got a BUCS team that takes part two tiers below Super BUCS. 

“And now we’ve had a few boys like Tom Parkin who’ve all had a taste of first-team action this year, and there’s another four or five of them, training with the squad, and hoping to get into the first team.”

The academy is run in partnership with Doncaster College and University Centre, meaning they get the chance to balance rugby and education, with Tyson saying the highly successful ‘Hartpury model’ is the most similar, offering vocational qualifications while learning a rugby trade too.

Tom Parkin is one of those to benefit. “There’s so much talent coming through, especially at Yorkshire Academy, you see the amount of lads who are just class players and you can see them going so far,” he says. “I feel lucky to get the opportunity to come to Doncaster, it’s huge for me, it’s such a great system that means I can get an education while also getting an opportunity to play rugby. It feels like there’s boundaries to what we can achieve here. I’m Yorkshire through and through so I naturally want to play for a Yorkshire team.”

While his academy boss did manage to get on the pitch against Bedford – albeit for the final two minutes – Tom will have to bide his time for at least a week longer. Happily, he was treated to another win over Bedford, as Doncaster closed out the game, winning 29-20, which included three tries for hooker George Roberts.

Steve Lloyd and Tony De Mulder, best friends and Doncaster Knights’ benefactors for decades, couldn’t be prouder of their club. And when they say ‘their’, they mean it in the way passionate fans talk about their team, and not as any kind of possession. Because while they’ve undoubtedly supported the club in every way over the years, they hold just the single share, the same as every club member. “I’ve been here since 1975,” explains Steve. “My parents were born in Doncaster but they moved to Sheffield and I was born there, but when I started
my business in 1975 – the Helsey Group – I went and joined the club. 

“He’s been there since man and boy though,” he adds, pointing to his friend Tony. “It was all horses and carriages when you joined wasn’t it?”

“I joined in 1962,” responds Tony. “I was seventeen years old.” While work got in the way of Steve’s rugby-playing career, Tony continued to don the Doncaster colours at centre until the age of 40, around the dawn of the league system, which arrived in 1987. The pair did however enjoy a few run-outs together in the Doncaster vets/social side, the Dragons. “We played together there at a time when it felt like the first team was going backwards and the Dragons were going forwards,” explains Steve. “We became best pals, and since then we’ve done everything: we’ve sailed together, skied together, shot together, so it seemed natural to run a rugby club together, which we did when the leagues were formed.”

Doncaster, to use Steve’s words were at their ‘lowest ebb’, in the late-80s. “We’d been put in Yorkshire Two (then level ten), but it only went down to Yorkshire Three, so we were pretty much rock bottom,” he says. “But that started the process of coming up the leagues, and we got nine promotions, which is a record, because there were more leagues then.”

Having been placed with the likes of Huddersfield YMCA, Wath and Wheatley Hills, they took two seasons to get into Yorkshire One, three more to get to North Two, making light work of the lower tiers.  “It was a heady ride,” admits Steve. “Then of course the professional era came and we were only able to pay a small win bonus to players, which was all we could afford. It wasn’t so much to attract players, it was more about keeping the players we had, because they were getting a lot of offers around that time. We only spent what we had at the time.”

“We were quite naïve,” chips in Tony, “I think professionalism sort of crept up on us, and other clubs were more prepared than we were. When we did start to lose players to other sides, we knew we had to start looking at this in a more professional manner.”

A genuine passion for their city drove them to turn the club fully professional. “We never did it as a business,” says Steve. “In the sense of wanting to make money, that was not in the slightest bit our motivation, it was just a total passion for the game, and passion for Doncaster. There was also the feeling that we could do much better things than we’d already achieved.”

The club has always moved steadily, first introducing win bonuses, then part-time pay, then going professional. “Doncaster wasn’t flush with jobs,” recalls Steve, “so players had to go further for jobs, and you can’t have half your players training on a Monday and the rest of the squad not there, so we bit the bullet and went full-time about a decade or so ago.

“If you look at our budget and outgoings compared to even others in the Championship, we are pretty well down the tree. But, if you can get a low budget and a high position, that’s a success.”

As they soared through the divisions, they eventually settled – after one relegation to National One – to become regular contenders in the Championship. Then, talk of the Premiership couldn’t be avoided. “It was a dream rather than a goal,” says Steve, “heart and head and all that. Our goal was always to win whatever league we were in. When we got into the Championship, we were riding high already. We were playing these top clubs that have been playing each other for a century or more, but in the days before the leagues, wouldn’t have given lowly Doncaster the time of day. It was fun just to be playing big names, the Moseleys, the Coventry, the Bedfords of this world, London Scottish, Richmond, names that were just fantastic. These are guys we never dreamt we would be able to play.”

Doncaster are building on all fronts. They’re increasing revenues by making Castle Park multi-use – it is used three days a week for vaccinations – and a charitable foundation is doing good work across the community to help also raise awareness of the club within the city. “We’re quite jealous of say Bedford,” says Tony, “who are a traditional rugby town and have 2,500-3,000 supporters, whereas on a good day we’ll have about 1,500-2,000. But we have had the crowd at 5,000, the capacity, for England women’s internationals and when we hosted the New Zealand Maori against the Championship XV.”

Nonetheless, given the RFU criteria – which recently meant sides could get promoted with a stadium capacity of 5,001, but on the proviso it would rise to 10,001 for the following campaign – they have to push on with more seats regardless of whether they have the bums to fill them. 

“We’re expecting any moment to get the consent for the 10,001-seater stadium, which initially will be put up on a temporary basis with some arena seating,” says Tony. “It’s the same as Bath have got at the moment.”

Once the fanbase starts to build, they’ll then start investing in permanent stands. “The plans are there,” adds Tony, “we’ll just have to see what happens with the Premiership and what happens with any decisions the RFU make on a new structure.”

When the pair look back on last season, like Steve Boden, they struggle with the decision to announce the non-promotion news at a critical time. “We put in a letter of appeal for them to postpone the decision being made,” explains Steve Lloyd. “Why make the decision when the outcome was still unknown, when we’d have known by early April, so it seemed silly for them to make a decisions there and then, but they went ahead for whatever reason.”

The bigger appeal from the club was around the requirement for 10,001 capacity. “We were trying to persuade everybody that there was logic in the argument of starting with a ground of 5,000 and building up to the 10,000, rather than it just being imposed from day one. 

“This puts an onerous burden on any club going up to do that, if you are developing towards it. We’d have to spend a lot of money putting temporary seating in – which you rent – and then watching that sit empty every match, costing us a fortune, when fortunes are just not available in quantity. 

“It was just a bad economic situation that was unnecessary and we’re still putting that theory forward. There’s nothing unsafe about our stadium,” he continues. “That’s why we got the women’s internationals there and the under-20s international. If anybody thought for one moment we were unsafe, we wouldn’t have got those. And we’ve both been businessmen, so why would we turn spectators away? We’re always going to keep ahead of the game. So, if we have a stadium for 5,000, and we start to see that we’re getting towards filling that, well, the good thing about temporary seating is that within about four or five weeks, you could put another 1,000-2,000 up, to cope with the increasing trade.”

The need to get themselves ready for 10,001 by season two if they’re promoted remains far from ideal. “We are still speaking about that, shall we say,” says Steve. “And who knows, the plight of rugby at the moment in the Premiership means you don’t know what will come out of it. There’s a lot being discussed at the moment.”

Did they see the collapse of Worcester and Wasps coming? “You knew it could certainly happen when you saw the amounts of money Premiership clubs were paying their players with very little extra income as a result,” continues Steve. “We constantly observe how many people the Premiership clubs are getting and, of course, the big boys get plenty [of spectators] in, but there are lots of clubs and lots of games that are played with well less than 10,000 in the stadium. When you look at it, you think ‘this is madness, guys, you’re spending money you haven’t got’ and now it is coming home to roost, and there’s going to have to be changes. 

“I’m not pleased to see an old club like Wasps or Worcester, for that matter, who we used to play against, hit their demise. Rugby is about growth, not about people going out of business, but like any business you’re not absolved the simplicity of spending what you’ve got or what you predict you can get. 

“They’ve got problems, change will be coming; change will have to come because players are going to have to play less rugby and because somehow we’ve got to excite the public more than we are doing to watch it because some of it is getting a little bit turgid. People walking away from lineouts and walking back in again, scrum resets one after another – that’s not what people come to watch. 

“People want to watch fast-flowing, hand-to-hand ball, cut out a lot of the kicking. That’s what excites people, and particularly the younger generation. That’s what will bring them into the stadium.”

What would they like to see happen? “The first thing that must happen,” begins Steve, “is that we confirm that there is aspiration for everybody. That was written down in 1987, to give every aspiring club the opportunity to go up higher in the leagues. So you must never hear the words, ‘ring fencing’, which has now almost gone away. You must always give that club, like us who’ve come up nine leagues, the opportunity to aspire, and who knows, in ten years’ time, that could be a very unknown club from somewhere.”

With the loss of RFU funding, the changes in entry criteria, the general lack of love and appreciation for the Championship from the powers-that-be, not to mention the day-to-day challenge of professional rugby – what has kept them involved for so long? “I’ve been here most of my life,” responds Tony. “So most of my good friends are rugby players or ex-rugby players, but it’s also the team: I’m so proud of the team.”

“We’re keen, we’re enthusiasts, we’re stubborn,” adds Steve, “and it’s boy’s own stuff isn’t it? Everybody knows that.” 

Story by Alex Mead

Pictures by Oli Hillyer-Riley

This extract was taken from issue 20 of Rugby.
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