Injuries take toll on Doncaster

It was a subdued Doncaster side that made the long journey back from Scotland after a disappointing performance handed spirited Ayr a place in the quarter-finals of the British and Irish Cup.

The Knights, who would have qualified for the last eight with victory, fell behind when Ayr won a lineout 20 metres out and, after putting the Doncaster defence under pressure, moved the ball to the right where Mark Stewart broke through a gap for a try converted by Ross Curle.

Although Knight’s fly-half Christian Lewis-Pratt kicked a penalty, Ayr took advantage of poor defence on the left flank for Damien Kelly to race over unopposed.

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With 24 minutes gone, the Knights lost control of the ball inside their own 22 and it bounced to Curle who scored his side’s third try.

Although the Knights fought their way back into the game they could not find a way through the Ayr defence.

Disaster struck the Knights early in the second half when they first lost Gareth Denton with a shoulder injury and then, shortly afterwards, having replaced two backs to look at other players, they lost winger Paul Devlin with a head injury and substitute PJ Gidlow with a broken arm.

The Knights were thus forced to place the remainder of the game with replacement flanker, Neil Cochrane, on one wing and starting flanker Latu Makaafi on the other.

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Between these mishaps Curle extended Ayr’s lead with a penalty.

The Knights did get back into the game with tries from close in by Ed Jackson and Steve Lawrie, both converted by Lewis-Pratt, but late on they could not force a game-changing try.

One of the only consolations was that the match gave the Knights’ management the opportunity to look at and learn about a number of players as they look at strengthening their squad ahead of next season.