Doncaster Knights will be looking to charge back into contention in the Greene King IPA Championship this coming season, having been recently promoted.
The South Yorkshire club use the tagline of “most promoted team in rugby” due to achieving eight promotions in the first fifteen seasons of the league structure in England.
With strong backing from a committed group of benefactors, members, sponsors and supporters they have risen at a sustainable pace through the leagues.
Relegated from the Championship, the second tier of English Rugby at the end of the 2012/13 season, the squad remained fully professional for 2013/14.
Through squad strength and clever utilisation of loan players from the Premiership, they bounced straight back up having headed the league for most of the season. A tense last day saw them beat Blackheath to return at the first time of asking, with Rosslyn Park waiting in the wings to sneak above them should they have slipped up.
Director of Rugby Clive Griffiths, an ex dual code international with strong links to Welsh Rugby, recruits well and has already secured good signings and renewed contracts with existing players for the new campaign.
Griffiths is in his second stint at Castle Park, the home of the Knights and he also believes that the ‘family’ culture and general set-up at the club means players return.
One of those players who has spent time at other Championship clubs is Bevon Armitage. The eldest of five brothers, four play pro rugby. Delon and Steffon play in France at Toulon whilst the youngest of the boys, Guy, is at London Irish.
The senior Armitage is staying for another season at Doncaster, and was a stalwart of the National One winning side last season.
This strong sense of community both on and off the pitch, with great backing and fabulous facilities should see the club continue to go from strength to strength.
In 1998 the club was given confirmation of a Lottery funded grant to build a new clubhouse including twelve changing rooms, new pitches (there are six) and function rooms.
This was opened in 2000, and was then followed by a wonderful new stand which opened in 2009.
The De Mulder Lloyd stand boasts the longest bar in Yorkshire with corporate boxes, function and conferencing facilities.
At a cost of around £3 million it was named after two business leaders in Doncaster – Club President and current Chairman Tony De Mulder and former Chairman, Steve Lloyd. It is a fantastic structure.
On my continued theme of the importance of long standing business connections that are established with clubs, De Mulder is Managing Director of Prosper de Mulder the UK’s largest processor of meat and poultry by-products. In turn, the business is now owned by a European giant Saria, headquartered in Germany employing five thousand staff across ten countries.
Lloyd, a former special needs teacher, is founder of the Hesley Group which provides education care for children with learning difficulties.
Other long standing sponsors include Northern Straw, Polypipe and Weldricks Pharmacy, whose roots are in South Yorkshire among a host of other equally important benefactors.
The club was selected to host the inaugural Championship XV game in 2013 which was played against the Maori All Blacks.
The Championship will be stronger still this coming season, with newly relegated Worcester from the Premiership having held onto key personnel and also recruiting new players. Semi-final play off clubs Leeds Carnegie, Rotherham Titans and Bristol Rugby also have strong squads and budgets.
In the mix will be London Scottish and Jersey will also be hoping to push harder this season having just survived their first two seasons at Level Two.
Local derbies against Rotherham and Leeds (this season in their newly rebranded guise of Yorkshire Carnegie) always draw big crowds to Castle Park.
It will be interesting to follow their progress come September.
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