Doncaster Knights Rugby Football Club (formerly, Doncaster RFC) are a professional rugby union club representing the city of Doncaster, England. The club play in the 2nd division of English rugby, Champ Rugby. Being the most promoted side in English history has led to huge changes at the Castle Park ground and within the team structure.
Castle Park Conference and Function centre is a multimillion-pound development and is among the top conference venues in Doncaster, while remaining a supportive place for amateur rugby union in the city. The club motto "rugby for all" sees amateur side Doncaster Phoenix compete at the same ground, as well as the ladies side Doncaster Demons and every age group from under-7 to under-17s.
History 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. In the same season, Doncaster also won the Yorkshire Cup.
After the departure of Griffiths to Worcester, the former Director of Rugby, 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 £3 million 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 far 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 playing nine games in 27 days (of which they won eight) 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 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, London Irish back row Danny Kenny, Argentinian-Italian prop Santiago Sodini and the return of former Knight Richard List from RC Narbonne 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 believed that this could be the most important match of the season. The game resulted in a win for Rosslyn Park 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". 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).
Honours 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
British and Irish Cup: Runners Up 2014-2015 Championship: Runners Up 2015-2016
Doncaster Phoenix (amateur side) Yorkshire 6 champions: 1999–00 Yorkshire 1 champions: 2014–15 North 1 East champions: 2015–16
Current standings
Current squad
The Doncaster Knights squad for the 2025–26 season is:
Props
Hookers
Locks
Back row
Scrum-halves
Fly-halves
Centres
Wings
Fullbacks
Past performance Year Tier Division P W D L PF PA PD TB LB Pts Notes2025-262Champ Rugby*26*2024-252English Championship221507662479 +18313376Finished 3rd2023–242English Championship20*1118509529 -209257Finished 6th 2022–23 2 English Championship 22 10 0 12 565 583 -18 9 3 52 Finished 6th 2021–22 2 English Championship 20* 17 0 3 524 322 202 9 0 77 Finished 2nd 2020–21 2 English Championship 10* 8 0 2 236 225 11 4 0 36 Finished 3rd 2019–20 2 English Championship 15* 6 0 9 268 351 -83 3 1 28 Finished 10th on 36.84pts* 2018–19 2 English Championship 22 8 0 14 546 617 -71 6 4 42 Finished 10th 2017–18 2 English Championship 22 9 1 12 582 615 -33 13 6 57 Finished 7th 2016–17 2 English Championship 20* 12 0 8 514 424 90 9 1 58 Finished 4th 2015–16 2 English Championship 22 15 2 5 588 470 118 10 5 79 Finished 2nd 2014–15 2 English Championship 22 8 1 13 429 481 −52 3 6 43 Finished 9th 2013–14 3 National League 1 30 25 0 5 943 487 456 18 4 122 Promoted to Championship as champions 2012–13 2 English Championship 22 3 1 18 364 592 −228 2 7 23 Relegated to National League 1 2011–12 2 English Championship 22 9 2 11 467 524 −57 7 3 50 2010–11 2 English Championship 22 9 0 13 572 576 −4 7 8 51 2009–10 2 English Championship 22 10 0 12 394 386 8 2 6 48 2008–09 2 National 1 30 21 2 7 895 571 324 14 3 105 2007–08 2 National 1 30 21 0 9 796 551 245 12 2 98 2006–07 2 National 1 30 22 1 7 855 474 381 16 4 110 1st Season as Doncaster Knights 2005–06 2 National 1 26 10 1 15 555 699 −144 5 5 52 2004–05 3 National 2 26 23 1 2 818 379 439 11 1 106 Promoted to National 1 as champions 2003–04 3 National 2 26 17 0 9 692 487 205 – – 34 2002–03 3 National 2 26 14 0 12 630 551 79 – – 28 2001–02 4 National 3 North 26 25 0 1 1074 357 717 – – 50 Promoted to National 2 as champions 2000–01 4 National 3 North 23 16 1 6 584 364 220 – – 33 1999–2000 4 National 2 North 26 12 2 12 656 539 117 – – 26 1998–99 5 North 1 22 18 1 3 550 214 336 – – 37 Promoted to National 2 North as champions 1997–98 5 North 1 22 17 2 3 489 285 204 – – 36 1996–97 6 North 2 22 22 0 0 690 259 431 – – 44 Promoted to North 1 as champions 1995–96 6 North 2 12 4 2 6 183 168 15 – – 10 1994–95 6 North 2 12 7 0 5 136 155 −19 – – 14 1993–94 7 North East 1 12 11 0 1 232 70 162 – – 22 Promoted to North 2 1992–93 8 North East 2 12 11 0 1 294 39 255 – – 22 Promoted to North East 1 1991–92 1990–91 1989–90 1988–89 1987–88 10 Yorkshire 2
2016–17 - Season shortened to 20 games due to London Welsh going into liquidation and being removed from the league by the RFU. 2019–20 - Season cut short due to Covid pandemic and final positions were determined by a best playing record formulae. Doncaster were 9th on 28pts when season was suspended but finished 10th on 36.84pts after formula was applied and a 5pt deduction imposed for use of an unregistered agent. 2020–21 - Season was truncated due to ongoing pandemic and teams only played each other once either home or away. London Scottish declined to participate due to pandemic costs so only 11 teams took part. 2021–22 - Due to Saracens being promoted but no team being relegated from the Premiership the league consisted of 11 teams. 2023–24 - Due to the financial collapse of Jersey Reds early in the season, the league was reduced to 11 and therefore, no promotion or demotion would occur. Chinnor RFC were promoted from National 1 and will play in the 2024–25 season. 2025-26 - The league was rebranded as Champ Rugby and expanded to 14 teams with 2024–25 National League 1 winners Richmond joining the competition alongside newly reestablished Worcester Warriors
Notes
References
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