Doncaster Knights: Club 'dismayed' by Premiership promotion ruling

Doncaster are four points clear at the top of the Championship but have played two more games than Cornish Pirates and Ealing Trailfinders

Doncaster have said the ruling to have no promotion to the Premiership this season has left them "disappointed, dismayed and disheartened".

The Rugby Football Union announced on Tuesday that neither the Knights nor Ealing Trailfinders met the standards required to play in the top flight.

Doncaster will be appealing against the decision.

They are top of the table on 67 points, four points ahead of Cornish Pirates in second and seven ahead of Ealing.

Ealing and Doncaster were the only clubs to apply to be eligible for promotion in the event of winning the second-tier Championship.

One of the minimum standards criteria is that the stadium must hold a minimum of 10,001 fans, with Trailfinders' and Doncaster's grounds each currently holding a capacity of around 5,000.

According to the RFU, neither club had "formal planning permissions" in place to expand their stadiums, nor did they have a groundshare arrangement in their applications.

However, Doncaster said in a statement: "Within the audit process, the only failure by the club is to, currently, not be able to demonstrate a capacity crowd of 10,001 at the club's ground, Castle Park.

"All other aspects of the audit, it seems are in order and Castle Park has, on a number of occasions, demonstrated its proficiency in hosting significant events via both women's and under-20s international matches.

"At this stage, it can only be stated that the board have every confidence that the required capacity could be delivered for season 2022-23 with a stand-by ground now being available should unexpected delays occur."

Should their appeal be unsuccessful it would leave the Premiership as a ring-fenced 13-team league, while now only the winner of National One will be promoted to the Championship for the 2022-23 season.

If either Doncaster or Ealing do gain promotion to the top flight, the Premiership will expand to a 14-team league from next season.

Doncaster also questioned the timing of the announcement with the Championship season heading towards its conclusion.

"Excitement in the camps and amongst rugby supporters in general is high but that has now been dashed at a stroke via yesterday's untimely RFU statement, producing a resurgence of subsequent outpourings of angry feelings towards the governing body at a time when harmony should prevail," they said.

"Sensibility and fairness dictate that a delay to a decision being made could have been better for all concerned. Now, the teams play the final matches of the season in an atmosphere of despondence, albeit an administrative box has been ticked."