‘Remember that’s our first hit-out for almost a year’ - Doncaster Knights’ Matt Smith

The former Yorkshire Carnegie forward featured in Saturday’s 46-26 defeat against Ealing Trailfinders – the South Yorkshire club’s first game in more than 10 months. Doncaster came from 33-7 down at the interval in the pre-season outing to really test their big-spending opponents in the second period.

They finished with four tries and Smith feels there is plenty to build on in their next outing – a much-anticipated trip to former European champions Saracens on Saturday week.

“One hundred per cent; when we got the ball, we actually looked dangerous and took it to Ealing,” he said.

“All we have to do now is, the more we get the ball the better our detail is and the more attack we get through, we’ll get sharper and sharper.

“We have to remember that’s our first hit-out for almost a year and there’s a new squad and new faces. That takes time.

“But there was enough there to really excite the fans.”

Smith, 31, conceded they gave themselves too much to do early on.

“There was a lot of errors from us but that’s to be expected with it being our first game,” he added.

“In that second half, though, we showed some real bits of quality and put them under a lot of pressure.

“So there’s frustration but also a lot of excitement.

“In the first half some of the shots we were putting in were outstanding. It was just the top two inch.

“We said a half-time we were giving way too many penalties away and a side like Ealing would keep coming at us if that carried on. But we cut those out and then looked dangerous.”

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