Elder cuts through to silence Knights
CHRIS ELDER put in a man-of-the-match display as Carnegie turned around a sevenpoint deficit with 20 minutes left on the clock to win on the road for the first time in the league this season.
Carnegie’s victory in a well-balanced festive derby was their sixth in seven games, lifting them above Hartpury and off the foot of the table for the first time since September, while sending out the message they can take their cup form into the league.
Back-three flyer Elder said: “I’m overjoyed; the massive thing is we played with a few changes in the cup that went well and it was important to feed that back into the league.
“It took a few phases to watch the big guys bash it out before I got the chance to spot a mismatch and have a go – luckily I had the pace to finish it.
“It was a case of not chasing the game or throwing silly passes, knuckling down and putting in our game plan even after 60 minutes. It was difficult but we managed to get the win.”
After a start dominated by defence, Carnegie were unable to utilise an advantage at scrum-time and after three collapses in a row, Knights kicked to touch. The ensuing fivemetre line-out saw No.8 Rory Pitman finish a catchand-drive.
From the restart, Carnegie skipper Pete Lucock cascaded past several defenders and despite being brought down by Michael Hills, a sleight of hand offload to Dan Temm saw the No.8 level the scores.
Then the game really opened up. A line-out on Knights’ 22-metre line led to scrum-half JB Bruzulier nipping around the forwards, away from veteran Colin Quigley, to score a classy effort.
The game swung when after another reset scrum, Doncaster put together eight phases and following breaks by full-back Cameron Cowell, then lock Josh Tyrell and wing Paul Jarvis on the other flank, blindside Oliver Stedman powered over near the posts.
Carnegie back row Cian Romaine would have scored but for a super tackle by Knights’ Matt Challinor, however Doncaster were caught offside and Elder reasserted a lead.
Carnegie lost a lineout and then conceded a penalty allowing fly-half Kurt Morath’s near-perfect kick to give Doncaster a 5m lineout of their own. After a long throw, Pitman spotted a gap on the blindside for replacement Henry Seniloli to score.
Morath made it 22-15 before Carnegie produced some excellent running rugby and a hack through by Temm allowed replacement Harry Davey to run onto a near-perfect bounce and dive over.
Then after a break from deep by wing George Watkins and eight phases in Knights’ 22, Elder slipped through to score.
Doncaster came close at the end and, despite Tyrell and Tom Hill both being sin-binned for a physical episode, Carnegie held on.
Doncaster coach Glen Kenworthy said: “It’s a problem we’ve got, getting into a position after 50 or 60 minutes and not finishing games off.
“Some poor game management, bad decisions and it’s caught us again. We didn’t manage the breakdown well and didn’t get the impact of the bench.”