Cambridge head coach Richie Williams pleased with progress ahead of return to RFU Championship action against Doncaster Knights

With his side preparing to return to RFU Championship action following a lengthy break, Cambridge head coach Richie Williams saw ‘plenty signs of progress’ during their opening block of fixtures.

Williams’ men chalked up two victories from the first five matches this season – equalling the total number of wins they managed to collect across the whole of the previous campaign.

And while the defeats to Chinnor and Hartpury University showed that there is still plenty of work to be done, Williams is satisfied with how the first few weeks of the campaign unfolded.

“We’re relatively pleased and when you compare it to the first five games of last season, we’re eight points better off and we’ve already matched the total number of wins,” said the Welshman.

“The Chinnor and Hartpury games are the obvious disappointments because we simply didn’t perform, but if you put those to one side there has been plenty signs of progress.

“Now it’s about us trying to find that consistency each week. We’ve certainly got the quality and experience to do that, but so far in some games we’ve only performed in certain periods.”

A full six weeks on from their previous Championship outing, Cambridge will be back battling for league points on Saturday (30 November) on the road at Doncaster Knights.

The Yorkshire club have started the season with an identical record to Cambridge of two wins and three defeats, yet Williams is expecting it to be the toughest challenge so far for his charges.

He added: “We’re coming into a tough block of games and this one against Doncaster will probably the toughest we’ve had so far this season.

“When you look at their recruitment, they’ve made no secret that they want to be a Premiership club in two to three years and I think they’ll get there.

“They’re coming off the back of some strong performances in the Premiership Cup, so we know how hard the game is going to be.

“But at the same time we gave a good account of ourselves against them last season and we feel like we’re a better side this time.

“It’s a good chance for us to show what we’ve got against a very good side.”

One major piece of positive news for Williams is the fact that Elias Caven is closing in on a return to action.

The winger, who was Cambridge’s leading try scorer last season, has been limited to just one appearance in 2024/25 because of a hip injury suffered in the warm-up ahead of the 26-21 victory at Caldy in late September.

However, while the clash at Doncaster could well come too soon, the 28-year-old is likely to be available for selection again soon.

“Elias has started training again and we’re hopeful that he’ll be able to feature in this next block of fixtures,” said Williams.

“That would be a big plus for us because we’ve missed him. He was our leading try scorer last season and there’s no doubt that he is one of the best players in the Championship.

“We won’t be rushing him because it’s been one of those niggling injuries, but he’s definitely getting closer to returning.”