Bristol v Doncaster Knights: Knights in mood to spring an unlikely comeback

As dynamic centre Will Hurrell attests, however, they remain undaunted and still have reasons to believe they can overhaul a 15-point first leg deficit to prosper in Bristol.

Granted, in its six-year history, no side has won the Championship play-offs final having lost the opening 80 minutes, let alone needed to make up such a hefty scoreline.

Furthermore, Doncaster’s revered opponents finished the regular season 16 points ahead of Hurrell’s side and have long since been expected to return, at last, to the elite after their increasingly costly relegation of 2009.

Nevertheless, the South Yorkshire club, who secured their highest finish of second this term to reach the play-offs for a first time, do hold on to the knowledge they are the last team to defeat Bristol, having won at this evening’s sold-out Ashton Gate in November.

On that night, perhaps the first sign unfashionable Doncaster were destined for a season of new highs, the visitors won 39-27 – a victorious margin of 12 points – although the hosts are much-changed now and have won all 16 Championship games since.

The Knights realise they let themselves down with a poor display in the first leg a week ago when, after a raft of uncharacteristic errors, they saw a 13-11 interval lead slip to finish 28-13 losers.

But Hurrell told The Yorkshire Post: “We’re confident as a side and definitely know we can bounce back from this. It is doable.

“We beat them well in the season at their place. We know they will come out and defend hard but we will throw everything at them to do our best to bring it back.

“That second half last week will have boosted Bristol’s confidence but it’s our job to go down there, knock it back out of them, get the first score and take it from there.

“It will be tough but it’s two legs and we looked at this as four quarters of 40 minutes.

“We’ve not achieved what we wanted to achieve so far but we have another chance.”

Doncaster director of rugby Clive Griffiths will underline to his squad the importance of getting that first score this evening and, hopefully, bringing tension back into Bristol’s game.

Andy Robinson’s side, of course, have lost the last two Championship finals – they also fell against Exeter in 2010 before the former England coach’s arrival – and, therefore, any early erosion of that 15-point advantage could easily cause some jitters.

Remember, they were 30-16 ahead at Worcester 12 months ago and in sight of glory before inexplicably having two men sin-binned late on and drawing 30-30 to agonisingly lose 59-58 on aggregate.

However, Hurrell, who played briefly in the Premiership with Leicester Tigers, having come through their Academy ranks, knows his side have their own issues to rectify.

“Our second half wasn’t good enough last Wednesday; we have to be better, more aggressive and really take it to them now,” said the 26-year-old, who was at London Welsh when they won promotion in 2012.

“We got our game plan going in the first half, implemented stuff we wanted and had that aggression.

“In the second period, they got away from us a bit and got on top of us. There was one lucky try – we stole the line-out yet they flooded through and ended up scoring –- but that’s the way the game goes sometimes.

“It was disappointing but we’ve worked on that since and will bounce back.”

Doncaster’s only try came last week via Hurrell, who cut a perfect line to angle through off Michael Heaney’s pass in the first half.

But the second period did deteriorate – the line-out spluttered, players made unforced handling errors, Declan Cusack failed to find touch with a penalty, all the sort of rudimentary mistakes that cannot occur this evening.

To underline the magnitude of Doncaster’s task, Bristol have only once lost by a margin of 16 points or more in 85 Championship and play-off matches under Robinson – the 27-8 defeat in the first leg of the 2013-14 final at Welsh.

Regardless of what happens, Hurrell admits his debut campaign at Castle Park – he has been a revelation since joining from National One Coventry – has proved memorable.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better season,” he said.

“It’s always difficult coming to a new team – you’re trying to put yourself forward, make friends – but I’ve fitted in so easily.

“I love the boys here, have really loved coming to training and that’s been a big part of our success – the boys turning up for each other.

“Personally, I’ve loved the entire season and am happy to be now staying longer.”

A league record crowd of over 16,000 will be in attendance at Ashton Gate as Knights make just one change.

No 8 Ollie Stedman starts in what will be his final game for the club before moving to Yorkshire Carnegie in the summer. Alex Shaw switches to blindside flanker with captain Michael Hills continuing at openside and Latu Makaafi dropping to the bench.

Bristol wing Jack Wallace, who impressed in the first leg, returns to the starting line-up, having recovered from a knee injury.

David Lemi will lead Bristol after being passed fit, although Mitch Eadie (shoulder), Glen Townson (knee) and Rayn Smid (hand) are out.