Knights preparing for league restart in January

IN a show of faith that the RFU Championship season will start early next year, Doncaster are planning to return to full-time training on November 2.

Ealing and Jersey have been back in full training for a while and now the Knights have decided to follow suit.

With the government’s furlough scheme finishing at the end of October, the Knights’ owners were faced with a decision to make players redundant or get back training – and Steve Lloyd and Tony de Mulder have opted to take a positive approach.

Doncaster kept existing contracted players on furlough and paid retainers to the 19 players newly signed up for the 2020/21 season to provide some much-needed security.

In a further act of generosity, new arrivals renting accommodation will have any outstanding rent paid for them should the Championship campaign be scrapped before their lease agreement expires.

Doncaster have assembled a 33-man squad for the 2020/21 season but are still looking to bolster their loose-head options following the decision of Ben Betts and Tom Hill not to take up their contracts.

Robin Hislop is back from a six-week loan from Saracens, but head coach Steve Boden has also lined up a dual-registered Premiership prop.

Gloucester are understood to be interested in Will Britton, whose loan deal from Bath was recently made permanent, although the lock would command a transfer fee.

Cornish Pirates and Coventry, two of the Championship’s other clubs with big ambitions, are currently training under Stage 1 guidelines and are awaiting updates with interest.

There is talk of a meeting between the RFU and government officials on October 23 when the level of bailout Rugby Union will receive could be decided.

Even with external financial assistance, there are serious doubts that the league would start as a 12team competition.

One part-time club is believed to have signed up only half-a-dozen players so far. With a potential start date only ten weeks away, they face a race against time to build a squad capable of competing at level two.