Doncaster 33 London Welsh 35: Late agony for Knights in home opener

The visitors eventually ran out 35-33 winners, with debutant Guy Armitage scoring a hat trick against the side his oldest brother Bevon currently plays for.

The Exiles had to come from behind three times to record their first competitive victory in over a year, but it looked as if the task might have been much simpler following their strong start.

After 15 mionuts, the visitors had raced into a 13-3 lead following Armitage’s first score, but the Knights hit back through tries from Andy Bulumakau and Latu Makaafi to go into the half trailing 23-22.

A penalty from Dougie Flockhart put the Knights ahead with just under an hour on the clock, but Nic Reynolds finished off some nice handling to cross in the corner shortly after, with Joe Carlisle adding the extras to ensure that the lead was short lived.

Flockhart’s boot continued to punish any Welsh indiscretions, but when Guy Amitage shirked several would-be tacklers to complete his hat-trick with less then 10 minutes to play it seemed as if the game was over.

But the Knights refused to lay down and a well-struck penalty from fly-half Declan Cusack deep into the visitors 22 built a platform for the home pack to form a powerful driving maul which rumbled over the try line with replacement back row Alex Shaw dotting.

A successful conversion from Flockhart would have tied the game up at 35-35, but the Scotsman unfortunately pulled his effort wide.