Doncaster Knights 37 London Scottish 28: Davies in to calm the nerves as Knights triumph

Behind at the break, they scored a further two tries in the second half through Dougie Flockhart and Tom Davies to bag the extra bonus point.

London Scottish got off to the better start and were 6-0 ahead inside 10 minutes after showing their intent to run the ball and offload, combined with lapses in the Knights defence, which gave Dan Mugford two easy penalties.

But then on their first visit to the opponents’ 22, Knights hit back and flanker David Bradford forced his way over the line, Tom Luke converting.

The Knights were reduced to 14 men as Latu Makaafi saw yellow for his try-saving effort out wide and London Scottish piled on the pressure and were eventually awarded a penalty try, converted by Mugford.

The visitors were able to add to their lead with the Tongan flanker off the field with replacement Matthew Heeks scoring in the corner.

Once it was back to a level playing field, the Knights were able to a grip again and Chris Hallam was able to scamper through and score between the posts in the final minute of the half, Luke adding the conversion.

For the first 20 minutes of the second period, the Knights were all over the visitors.

The pack dominated at the scrum and gave Luke two further penalty chances which he took to edge his side back in front, either side of a yellow card for William Lipp for a late tackle.

A quick counter set Michael Keating free and his kick down the line was fielded by Bradford, who popped the ball up to Flockhart, who ran in to score.

Luke added the conversion and a penalty soon after but he then turned from hero to villian as his clearing kick was chased down and Mugford was on hand to grab a try, which he converted to close the gap.

Tom Davies was then on hand with just a minute left on the clock to go over in the corner and finish a swift team move, Luke adding the conversion which denied the visitors a point.

Doncaster Knights: D McIlwaine, D Flockhart, O Goss, P Gidlow, M Keating, T Luke, C Hallam (C), S Corsar, J Yeandle, A Brown, M Challinor, G Kenworthy, L Makaafi, D Bradford, A Boyde. Replacements: T Davies, A Brown, D Parsons, Z Farivarz, C Planchant, L Audis, M Whitehead.

London Scottish: J Bordiss, R Penney, B Macdougall, G Trueman (C), D Howells, D Mugford, S Amor, A Clarke, A Kwasnicki, L Thiede, S Pape, J Brown, O Brown, A Andrews, M Bright. Replacements: A Kent, T Standfield, A Mackenzie, B Thomas, M Heeks, C Radford, W Lipp.