Doncaster Knights’ workhorse may need to lighten his load

Having become the first coach to bounce his side back into the Championship following relegation, Clive Griffiths is now busy with the challenge of making Doncaster a true force in English rugby‘s second tier.
As well as bolstering his pack, with a second-row top of the shopping list, the 60-year-old knows he faces decisions about his own future.
In what must be a unique achievement in rugby, Griffiths has won titles in Union and League – as head coach of Doncaster and North Wales Crusaders – in the same season. He also acts as defence coach to the Canada national side.
But he admits something may have to give in getting the Knights fully prepared for the rigours that lie ahead.
“I know I’ve got to reduce my workload because the Championship demands extra and is going to test us considerably,” he told TRP.
“At Crusaders they’ve brought in an extra coach so that’s taken a bit of the pressure off me, but I’ll have to take stock and see what I’m going to do at the end of the Rugby League season in August/September.
“It’s the same with Canada. I’ve spoken to Kieran (Crowley, Canada head coach) but nothing is decided yet.
“Kieran realises that for the next six weeks my focus in going to be on recruitment at Doncaster and that I could be going at it head down, at 100 miles an hour, at the time he needs me.
“I’ve successfully managed having different roles for five years, but I know that, in due course, I’ll have to take five.
“My primary employment is with Doncaster Knights and I’ve got to be fair to them. They put their faith in me and gave me a second chance after I left last time (to go to Worcester) and I hope winning promotion has partly repaid them, although there’s still a lot more to come.”
While delighted to win titles in both codes, Griffiths has no doubts about which one was the harder of the two.
“This was the hardest and the sweetest; it was a 30-game slog and everyone wanted to knock us down,” he said.
“We’ve taken a bit of flak from certain clubs and players saying that, as a full-time club, we should have won the league by a country mile.
“But three months into the season we were full of holes, we’d been torpedoed by injuries. Going to Fylde we had a player out in every position. We lost Phil Eggleshaw and Michael Hills within five minutes of each other at Henley. Thank goodness Leicester, Leeds and Worcester helped us out.”
Reflecting on the Knights’ marathon journey back to the Championship, Griffiths added: “Worthing grew another leg when we played them in the wind and the rain, Tynedale away was an experience to behold, you couldn’t tell who was who but the boys dug deep and showed great character – as they have done all season – to defend for 36 phases at the end when they were down to 13 men, Blaydon beat us fair and square, their home ground is a tough place to go and win, Fylde played well against us in the first half and at Henley we missed five shots at goal, one of which went through the posts but wasn’t given.
“There are some very good players and coaches in National One and I’ll look at the league with interest next year.
“Ealing are reputedly going to spend the same sort of money again in a bid to go straight back up, you’d expect Rosslyn Park to be there or thereabouts having come so close this year and Esher, Coventry and Fylde will have decisions to make about what they want to do.
“When all is said and done the boys fully deserved to come through what is a very tough league.”
JON NEWCOMBE