Doncaster Knights: Home advantage counts for nothing against leaders Ealing Trailfinders

Ealing Trailfinders deserved their 19th successive league victory, one which puts Doncaster 10 points behind Cornish Pirates, who currently occupy the sixth and final play-off spot.

What was so disappointing for the Knights, losing their ninth league game, was that they failed, with home advantage, to achieve any league points whatsoever.

They now have a break of three weeks before a testing challenge away at Coventry who are fourth. A week later, the Knights are back at Castle Park with a Friday evening game against Oxfordshire rivals Chinnor.

Ealing won by four tries to one, and given the amount of ball they enjoyed and considering the high number of penalties (14) Doncaster conceded, the champions should arguably have scored more.

Doncaster’s commitment can’t be questioned and they were unfortunate to lose two key players through injury, fly-half Russell Bennett and winger Ryan Olowofela (inset).

But with Ealing grabbing more than 70 per cent of the possession, the Knights struggled to make much of an impact.

Forwards Rhys Tait and East Timor Viliamu stood out in a side which conceded two tries in each half to a team which never allowed Doncaster to make significant progress.

However, it could be said that the best try of the match was scored by the losing team. Sadly, from Doncaster’s viewpoint, it came far too late.

As the Knights’ forwards threatened Ealing’s line on 79 minutes, the ball came back to replacement fly-half, Morgan Bunting, whose accurate kick across the field to winger Zach Kerr was caught safely.

Kerr’s try illustrated how skilful and punitive Doncaster can be, qualities that will be needed in the seven remaining matches if they are to make the top six.

“We didn’t get a lot of opportunities for our attack to function,” explained Kerr.

“If you give away that many penalties against a team like Ealing you are not going to get many chances. It was very frustrating. A lot of the penalties were our undoing, I thought.

“I also thought with all due respect to Ealing, we made them look a lot better than they were. Physically, they were no different to Cornish Pirates and we dominated them.

“Our goal-line defence was good, but we did miss too many tackles. I don’t think this loss should take away anything from the improvements we made against Pirates, Bedford and Chinnor.”

With three weeks before the clash at Coventry, Doncaster should see the return of fly-half Bennett, who suffered a head injury in the first half.

But the extent of the injury to winger Olowofela, whose brother Jordan is also unfit, is unclear.