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Doncaster Knights plan stadium expansion to boost Premiership bid

Doncaster Knights stadium

Doncaster Knights are planning to nearly double their stadium capacity to satisfy one of the major hurdles that Championships club face to break into the Gallagher Premiership.

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The Knights have lodged a planning application for Castle Park with Doncaster Council that centres around new East and South stands to take the stadium capacity from 5,139 up to 10,015, with additional ancillary supporting facilities, according to the Doncaster Free Press newspaper. If the Knights are successful and reach the top flight it would give Yorkshire – the biggest county in England – a Premiership club.

The Knights’ application comes after the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premiership Rugby Limited (PRL) controversially blocked the promotion of Championship winners Ealing Trailfinders, because they did not met the minimum standards criteria for entry to the Premiership. Ealing’s Sports Ground holds approximately 5,000 with 2,115 seats.

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It was agreed in June last year that the Premiership could be expanded to 14 clubs at the end of the 2021-22 season if the winner of the Championship met the required minimum standards criteria.

The Knights, who finished second in the league, and Trailfinders put themselves forward for promotion and were independently audited under the minimum standards criteria, including the requirement that their nominated stadium must hold a minimum of 10,001 fans.

A Doncaster Knights spokesman said: “To summarise, the proposal is appropriate in this location and would enhance an existing sporting facility both in terms of the quality of experience offered to its users and the overall visual appearance of the ground.

“The impact on the appearance and openness of the surroundings should be acceptable due to the woodland screening around the site and use of appropriately coloured materials. The level of additional traffic generated would not result in problems on the highway network and the level of parking and parking provision elsewhere is adequate to serve the site.”

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Doncaster’s ambitious plans come shortly after Cornish Pirates revealed their bid to satisfy the 10,001 capacity criteria had been hit by the decision of Cornwall Council to withdraw support for the Stadium for Cornwall development as part of the Government’s Levelling Up fund programme.

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Bull Shark 11 minutes ago
England and their Chief problem

It’s full of hogs, homophobes, redneck asshats and appears to be governed by Trump’s Taliban.

An absurd statement! Outrageous! The people of Missouri must surely revolt!


All he has to do is hustle over to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, sit down over a cold Michelob with the Chiefs’ Head Coach, Andy Reid, and ask him one question: namely, how does his team manage to haul their butts out of the bonfire every other week when the flames are licking around their pants?

To be fair, Steve could achieve the same thing if he hustled down to his local bowls club. Or his local school cricket team. I don't think he needs to go so far out of town to get advice - because he's getting the basics wrong!


Are we comparing like with like here? In fairness, we’re probably not. The Chiefs are the back-to-back Superbowl champions and boast a roster of players and coaches who can all finish each other’s sentences.

This rugby website must please stop feeding our trough with NFL stuff. It makes me nauseaous.


The chiefs can go smoke a bong for all I care. All Borthwick needs to do (without code hopping) would be to look at the Boks who are filled with players and coaches who can finish each others sentences. Oh, and all he'd really need to do to get some useful insights would be to talk to Felix Jones - you know, who was actually part of the bok team.


‘We don’t have any contact with Felix,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure if the coaches do or not.’ Let’s be very polite here: this is something of a head-scratcher.


Bloody ridiculous...


Which, in turn, begs the question why haven’t England been a yard in front in their last two games? Because, defensively right now, they’re a jumble.


Getting warmer....


We know not why, although, supposedly, he’s still working for the team ‘remotely’. If you know what this means or how it works, I’m all ears. Certainly, England have no idea.

We know why. Felix said the environment was sh1t. Looks at Borthwick.


The bottom line is this:


- The management of this team is broken;

- You can't be great if your team culture and management is broken (The basics);

- Borthwick is the chief architect of this;

- Just as they looked to get their defence right during the 6 Nations - Felix is out the picture;

- They are at sqaure one - and their defence last week was hopeless. Not fixable in a week;

- The English looked unfit - and that can't be fixed in a week either.


The problems and the solution are so obvious. But anyway - let's wait until after the 6 Nations to fix the problem. England is in a slow burn - and after England ships 10 - 44 points against the Boks on Saturday I expect the sh1t will truly hit the fan.


Reckon England Rugby Team will get debated in parliament even.


Sir Clive is definitely going to poo his pants.


The Springboks are going in to this game preparing as if they are playing in a World Cup Semi-Final. England are toast.


I'll even predict that England will take an early lead. Score two tries, quick out the gates. Cunningham-Smith will be going bonkers. Downing a beer in the stands with the fans.


60 minutes later... Toast.

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