Cornish Pirates 30 Doncaster Knights 14: Poor start proves to be Knights' downfall

A dreadful first-half display saw them trail 20-0 at the break, and despite an excellent fightback, they left themselves with too much to do.

Knights were battered up front in a torrid opening period, and hardly ventured into the hosts' 22, with the Pirates revelling in their return to The Mennaye, scoring three tries, and having two others disallowed.

Home debutant Phil Burgess collected the first after 11 minutes; Pirates captain Gavin Cattle the second after Williams's initial superb try-saving tackle on big lock Laurie McGlone.

Prop Alan Paver grabbed the third from a line-out. Full-back Rob Cook kicked one conversion to add to his fourth-minute penalty.

The difference in Doncaster's second-half performance was stark. The dazzling Williams ran in a wonderful try from halfway in the 53rd minute, with debutant fly-half Tristan Roberts converting, to reduce the deficit to 13 points.

Outstanding Knights' skipper Neil Cochrane then had the ball knocked from his grasp as he looked set to cross under the posts as the visitors piled on the pressure

All Pirates could muster was a Cook penalty, and when Williams bagged his second try in the 76th minute, with Roberts converting, an upset looked possible.

However, two minutes later, Pirates fly-half Jonny Bentley burst through to collect the bonus-point try to end Doncaster's valiant fightback.

Cornish Pirates: R Cook, N Jackson, M Hopper, S Winn, R McAtee, J Bentley, G Cattle (capt) (J Doherty 77), A Paver, D Ward (R Elloway 77), R Brits (P Andrew 59), L McGlone (M Myerscough 52), B Gulliver (I Nimmo 77), C Morgan, P Burgess, K Marriott (B Cowan 52). Replacement not used: T Luke.

Doncaster Knights: S McColl, D Flockhart, C Briers, P Devlin (A Wright 68), M Williams, T Roberts, C Hallam (N Jones 65), L Thiede (M Cusack 78), S Boden (S Lawrie 60), M Cusack (D Frazier 47), G Kenworthy (M Challinor 56), J Craig, A Boyde (L Makaafi ht), N Cochrane (capt) (C Walker 80+1), E Jackson.

Referee: JP Doyle (RFU).