The Champ Rugby table makes for a grim reading for a team as ambitious as Doncaster Knights - and head coach Darren Fearn is trying not to look at it.

When natural impulse takes over he sees a club that the RFU routinely recognises as the second-tier outfit most equipped to take the step up to the Prem sat 10th out of 14 teams, the product on the field a long way behind where they are off it.

But Doncaster have last season’s second-half surge to fall back on, when they won 11 straight fixtures to rise from a similar position to a final placing of third.

And there is mitigation, too, believes Fearn, as to why they are eight points adrift of the top-six play-off positions.

Looking at it differently: Doncaster's head coach Darren Fearn. (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

placeholder image — Looking at it differently: Doncaster's head coach Darren Fearn. (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

“I’d be lying if I said I haven’t seen it (the table), but I’m of the opinion you try and get as many points as you can,” said Fearn.

“We’ve played five of that top six away from home already, so it’s important that we keep going after every game. We had 12 players unavailable last week. Others won’t have that, but they might have it later in the season so it’s a league table across the season for good reason.

“There’s still over half the season to go, so do I still have faith we can get into the top six? Yes.”

They head to London Scottish today buoyed by a victory at Richmond at the same ground eight days earlier, and determined not to slip against one of the few teams below them.

“Scottish are a decent team, they ran Ampthill close at the weekend, they’ll have a couple of Harlequins lads in there who are very talented, so we’ve got to build on last week,” said Fearn.

“We have the same mentality every week whether it’s Worcester, Ealing or anyone.”