My Life in Rugby: Tony de Mulder – Doncaster president

It was a great honour to lead the side out against Moseley last month when I celebrated my 25th anniversary as president of Doncaster RFC. To have a room full of people helping me celebrate was quite overwhelming, especially as I didn’t know anything about it beforehand. My daughter travelled over from Greece and all my family was there along with lots of old players I’d played with.
My association with the club stretches back 55 years to when I first started playing at 17. No one would think to look at me now but I played centre! I finally hung up my boots when I was 40, a few years before our ascent up the league ladder began. Other than a few years at Wolverhampton in my early 20s, Doncaster has been my one and only club.
My first away game for Doncaster was at Driffield and I remember it to this day. I’d just come out of school, I’d been picked for the first-team and the chap in front of me called Jonny Parker, had a lighted cigarette – he was smoking as he ran on the field! I thought ‘What’s this!?’ There was a big culture of drinking and singing and all those things that go on. It was a good, good time. Many of the friends I made then are still my best mates.
The league structure was introduced in 1987. The RFU had set up a system whereby it was decided which division you’d begin in by the teams you played before. But we were only playing local sides like Headingley Wanderers which was their second team. So we were put quite low down in Yorkshire Two when the leagues started.
Clubs like Rotherham knew what was going on and got themselves organised with some good results beforehand and so were much higher up the leagues. It was disappointing but we were an amateur club and not really thinking about what we were doing. We were just happily going along. We had one pitch at Castle Park another across the end and the old clubhouse in the corner.
I became president in 1990 and one day we were playing away at Thornesians and got absolutely slaughtered. I was stood with Steve Lloyd, my partner in the rise of the Knights and the other benefactor to the club, and we just said it was time we cracked on.
We brought in Kevin Westgarth, who played for the North of England, as player-coach and he inherited some very good players who’d come up through our junior ranks, such as the Senior brothers, Richard and David. We won four or five promotions in quick succession until we reached the Championship, having attracted a number of good calibre coaches to the club.
We’re delighted that our current coach, Clive Griffiths, has just agreed to sign a new two-year deal. In Griff, with his vast experience in the top flight of rugby, we have someone who offers that long-term management and coaching ability that all successful sports teams are built around.
Steve and I are immensely proud of the facilities we’ve developed at Castle Park. To see the ground full to its 5,000-capacity when the New Zealand Maori took on the Championship XV here a few years ago was a great day for everyone. Also, to have a fixture list that has included the likes of Harlequins, Northampton and Bristol in recent years tells you something about how far we have come.
I missed our historic win at Bristol earlier in the season because I was at a friend’s birthday bash in Benidorm. Needless to say, I followed the action on Twitter. We look forward to welcoming them to our place in March when, who knows, we could still be one and two in the Championship table.
*As told to Jon Newcombe