As the half wore on this opportunity remained a bright memory as both defences stopped whatever was thrown at them. The Knights’ rearguard was the busier in the first 10 minutes as the Saints, with Spencer as lively as ever, tried in vain to find a way through.
It was far from one-way traffic however and the Saints had some defending to do as well in the first quarter. But the Knights too found attacking against a defence that conceded only one try in January a difficult task and could not create a clear chance either.
While the defences were not keen on letting anything through they were far from cherubic and penalties were awarded on a regular basis. Plenty of these were kickable and Bruce Reihana and Mark Woodrow both had chances to increase their personal point tallies.
Reihana won this contest in the first half with four successes to Woodrow’s one although both missed ambitious attempts in the swirling wind as well.
Although the first half was largely a battle of attrition the Saints were always looking to change the point of attack to try and find a way through. Spencer was the orchestrator with Reihana and back rowers Mark Easter and Darren Fox making half-breaks. Again though nothing could be built and the Doncaster line remained intact.
The half finished with the Knights camped out on the Saints line. A kickable penalty was sent to the corner by Woodrow and the pack inched their way forwards. They couldn’t force their way over however and the half ended with the Saints leading 12-3.
Doncaster had another great opportunity to score in the opening minutes of the second half. A Saints knock-on gave the Knights a five-metre scrum and with fringe drives and backs moves the hosts tried to create a hole. A superb Woodrow pick-up meant that the pressure continued and his cross-kick to Paul Bailey required a superb mid-air catch from Paul Diggin to de-fuse the danger.
For the next 15 minutes this was as close as either side came to crossing the whitewash and it was apparent that it would take something special to do so. In the 58th minute a move finally clicked. Neil Starling cruised past Glen Kenworthy on the right to take play into Doncaster’s half. Easter burst through the midfield and Clarke handed off the attempted tackle to score a well taken try. Reihana missed the conversion from wide out but Saints still had a 14-point cushion with a quarter of the match remaining.
Doncaster again came within sight of the Saints line with a rolling maul but like its predecessors this was repelled. It was as good an opportunity as either side would have in the third quarter as play became bogged down between the 22-metre lines, despite the attempts of Spencer, who made a superb pick-up off his bootlaces, and Woodrow to spread the play.
But there was no further breakthrough and Saints went into Monday’s quarter final draw.
Teams:
Doncaster Knights – Carter; Bailey, Hunt, Davey, Bishop (capt)(Van Vuuren 71mins); Woodrow, B Jones; List, Boden, Ta’u (Davies 64mins), Gross (Fa’aoso 50mins), Kenworthy, Griffiths, Cook, Planchant.
Northampton Saints – Reihana (capt); Starling, Clarke (Ansbro 81mins), Downey, Diggin; Spencer (Myler 78mins), Robinson (Howard 64mins); Smith (Tonga’uiha 64mins), Shields (Hartley 51mins), Stewart, Lord (Hoy 78mins), Rae, Easter, Fox, Hopley (Tupai 73mins).
Scorers:
Doncaster Knights – Pen: Woodrow.
Northampton Saints – Try: Clarke; Pens: Reihana (4).
Attendance:
1,800
TIMELINE:
9mins SAINTS Pen Reihana 0-3
16mins SAINTS Pen Reihana 0-6
20mins KNIGHTS Pen Woodrow 3-6
24mins SAINTS Pen Reihana 3-9
34mins SAINTS Pen Reihana 3-12
HALF-TIME KNIGHTS 3 SAINTS 12
58mins SAINTS Try Clarke 3-17
FULL-TIME KNIGHTS 3 SAINTS 17
