Knights’ situation gets worse after home loss

The Knights urgently need much more than the losing bonus point obtained last night against teams which are also fighting to stay up.

Making far too many handling errors, Doncaster, whose points came from three penalties on 1, 29 and 56 minutes from winger Dougie Flockhart, lost the game late in the second half.

Drawing 9-9 after London Scottish’s goal-kicker James Love had put over his third penalty in the 67th minute, Doncaster, not for the first time, lost control of the ball. It was a fatal error. Replacement centre Andrew Reay kicked the ball ahead, it bounced perfectly for winger Miles Mantella to collect and then touch down in the corner.

This devastating blow provided a vital 14-9 lead for the visitors whose efforts to break through earlier had been contained.

In a close match, the Knights were far too charitable and knocked on too often – blunders which ruined promising attacks.

A decent opportunity was created following a break from replacement forward Will Hafu, but Doncaster threw away the chance by then losing the ball at a lineout.

Later, another scoring opportunity was missed when Flockhart failed with a kickable penalty on 70 minutes – a chance that would have given them a 12-9 lead.

Instead, London Scottish, who had created little, did take the one clear-cut scoring opportunity –one which has landed the home side in deeper trouble.

Doncaster Knights: Keating, Flockhart (Mama, 74), Simpson, Luke, Lewis, Braid (Lennard, 74), Bedford, Davies, Buckley, Francis (Bergmamas, 63), Challinor, Parsons (Pailor, 75), Kettle, Rawling (Hafu, 52), Planchant.

London Scottish: Thompson, Love, Grove, Gidlow (Reay, 56), Mantella, Godman, Bolt, Irish (Mayhew, 56), Kwasnicki, MacKenzie (Fry, 56), Spivey (Karonias, 56), Hotson, Russell, Pennycook, Bright.

Referee: S Lee (RFU).