Doncaster Match Preview

By James Roach
September 24 2005

This weekend sees the Blue and Whites make their first journey of the season. After the three games at home, the Cov team and supporters will make the journey up to South Yorkshire to play the league new-boys Doncaster.

The team, virtually unchanged from last week, sees Gareth Gravell drop out of the squad due to a slight ankle injury. Tom Johnson comes in to replace the openside. The recent signing from Reading was put in front of a disciplinary panel on Tuesday evening and was not served a ban for his two yellow cards received against Otley. The only other change is that Alex Gluth comes onto the bench in place of Johnson.

The Division 2 champions have made a less than impressive start to their campaign, losing their first three matches home to the Cornish Pirates and Exeter and away to Bedford. They will be looking at this Saturday’s match as a new start.

A few former Coventry players are included in the Doncaster team with scrum half Llyr Lane starting on the bench and recent signing John Cannon yet to feature due to work permit problems. One ex-Doncaster player features in the Cov team in the form of Paul Clapham who starts alongside Cov kid Ben Gulliver in the second row.

The two teams have never met before in any competitions.

Coventry		Doncaster
Richard Davies	15	John Boden
Kurt Johnson	14	Donovan Van Vuuren
Nik Witkowski	13	Brad Hunt
Donovan Sanders	12	Duncan Murray
James Moore	11	Luke Nabaro
Jon Higgins	10	Jon Benson
Mike Walls	9	Charlie Harrison
© Hendry Rheeders	8	Dan Montagu
Tom Johnson	7	Simon Grainger
Henno Venter	6	Russell Earnshaw ©
Paul Clapham	5	Ed Norris
Ben Gulliver	4	Dan Cook
Pete Bucknall	3	Ngalu Tau
Rich Protherough	2	Johnny Roddam
Kisi Pulu	1	Steve Barretto
Replacements
Rob Chrystie	16	Richard List
Josh Taumalolo	17	Steve Boden
Craig Richards	18	Tom Davies
Rich Siveter	19	Jimmy Rule
Maafu Pale	20	Oliver Cook
Dave Campton	21	Llyr Lane
Alex Gluth	22	Michael Wood

Referee: Alan Biggs

Touch Judges: Andrew Vertigan, Barry Dalby