Only a day after the announcement of Mike Whitehead’s return to South Yorkshire, Davey announces another experienced player winging his way into Castle Park. 24 year old Ben Toft, a player who made over 50 appearances at this level in a 3 year spell at Coventry has put pen to paper on a deal to be part of the Knights RFU Championship 2011/12 Campaign.

Toft, a player Davey coached during his time at Coventry, comes to the Knights via French side Oyonnax , having taken time in his career to experience French Rugby. He developed through the Leicester Academy and signed his first professional contract with Leicester staying for 2 seasons and earning some game time (2002-06). This was a period that saw Toft represent England at U16, U18 and U19 level. Toft moved on to a successful 3 year period at Coventry , during which time he was coached by Brett Davey. Scoring several wonder tries and winning many “man of the match” awards Ben’s time at Coventry was an undoubted success.

On the player, Davey commented “ Ben is a player I know a lot about and I think he is the ideal complement to the two wingers we already have, Flockhart and Keating. While the two of them have size and power about their game Ben has pace, guile and a few tricks up his sleeve”. He continued “ There is a strong theme running through recruitment at Doncaster and that is balance. It is imperative that we are able to change our game dependent upon the situation and I believe we are building the foundations to enable that.”

A key to Ben’s game is not just his pace but reliability under pressure, although predominantly a Winger Toft is another player who can comfortably fill in at Full Back. He is known for being solid in defence and comfortable under the high ball.
Season tickets to watch the new look Knights in the RFU Championship 2011/12 season are available right now, more information at www.drfc.co.uk .