Knights charge top with Boxing Day bonus

DONCASTER went top of the Championship after a 39-19 win over London Scottish on Boxing Day.

Ealing have been top for the majority of the campaign but having not played since their win at Richmond on December 11, their title rivals took the chance to pile the pressure on Ben Ward’s side, who have two games in hand on the Knights.

Doncaster opened the scoring with an Alex Dolly penalty and their lead was extended when the first try was scored after a Sam Hudson grubber kick was chased down by Dolly, who converted his own try.

Hudson got in on the tryscoring act before Scottish got back into the game after Doncaster’s Billy McBryde was sin-binned for a high tackle, which was followed by Sam Baker’s try for Scottish.

Despite their numerical disadvantage, Maliq Holden touched down before a further Scottish try through Nick Selway.

But the Knights’ bonus point win was secured through Andrew Foster’s and Will Holling’s second half scores. Scottish scored a consolation try through Tom Georgiou but remain bottom of the table on just eight points.

Jersey Reds blew their opportunity to go top as they lost 28-19 away to fifthplaced Bedford Blues, in front of over 4,000 fans at Goldington Road.

Championship top points scorer Will Maisey opened the scoring with a penalty before the hosts raced into a ten-point lead courtesy of Jame Elliott’s converted try.

Eoghan Clarke replied with an unconverted score, but the hosts extended their lead through another Maisey penalty and hooker Jack Hughes’ try before half time.

Clarke completed his hat-trick in the second half with two further scores before a third Maisey penalty and Rich Lane’s converted try sealed the Blues’ bonus point victory.

Hughes said: “That was the best performance of the year and one of the best performances I’ve ever been involved in.”

Coventry secured a narrow 26-22 victory over Ampthill at Butts Park. The visitors raced into a 15-0 lead after half an hour through tries from Jack Dickinson and Jac Arthur, with a penalty and conversion coming from fly-half Russell Bennett. Fred Betteridge scored tries either side of the half before Coventry took the lead through Nile Darces’ converted crossover.

Ampthill regained their lead through Billy Harding’s try but the home side snatched the win late on with Saracens loanee Joel Kpoku scoring the winner.

Coventry’s Evan Mitchell said: “Things weren’t going our way but we had a good talk at half time, addressed what we needed to fix and got the reward for it.”