Doncaster Knights 41 Birmingham & Solihull 8: Rampant Knights march on

It leaves them needing only five points from the two remaining matches – at Pontypridd on Wednesday and at Rotherham on Saturday – to reach the semi-finals.

For his side's seventh game in 21 days, Knights director of rugby Lynn Howells made 12 changes from the team that had suffered its first defeat during this period at Championship leaders Bristol on Wednesday.

The players to retain their starting places were centre Chris Briers, lock Glen Townson and No 8 Chris Bundy. Amongst those brought in was youngster Matt Lowcock at flanker.

Tries from Andy Wright, Matthew D'Arcy and Matt Williams, playing his first game for three months due to a shoulder injury, and two conversions by Ali Warnock made it 22-7 at the break.

Birmingham player-coach and former Knights player Russell Earnshaw suffered what appeared to be a serious shoulder injury when driven back by three players in a tackle.

Replacement prop Matt Long was also sin-binned and further tries for Doncaster came from D'Arcy, replacement Nicky Griffiths and Wright before Tom Foden added a try to the visitors' first-half penalty.