Positives, but defeat leaves Exiles fighting for survival

DONCASTER Knights made the trip down to London Scottish looking to improve upon a somewhat disappointing season thus far.

Following an almighty scare in the first half the travelling side managed to get over the line with a bonus point win which leaves Scottish fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table despite a big performance.

Scottish forwards coach Joe Gray said: “There were a lot of positives out there and I can’t fault the effort but we’ve said that a lot this season.

“We know we need to turn those big performances into something in the final couple of weeks of the season to keep us in this league.”

Doncaster took control of the game looking to play a lot of rugby in the early exchanges. They moved the ball around well and managed to make plenty of space which resulted in the opening try for John Kelly, converted by Alex Dolly.

Scottish found a foothold in the game through their driving maul which resulted in a lot of penalties throughout the game. This led to the first try for the hosts as Austin Wallis flopped over. Nathan Chamberlain followed up with the conversion and then landed a penalty shortly after to give Scottish the lead.

This was bettered when Lennox Anyanwu came up with an intercept on his own 22 and raced clear opening up a 10-point gap at the break. However, as has often been the way this season, Scottish succumbed to ill discipline and Doncaster took full advantage. They targeted the driving maul and managed to make it pay in the tight exchanges.

Replacement prop Karl Garside was the main beneficiary scoring two pick and go tries, with Dolly’s ever reliable boot extending the lead to 33-17.

Viliami Taulani was shown a yellow card with ten minutes to go. Five minutes later, Doncaster’s Jack Metcalf was sin-binned for a deliberate knock on as Charlie Ingall look tried to give a scoring pass, and Scottish were awarded a penalty try.

This gave the home side some hope of securing a bonus point or two.

However, credit to Doncaster Knights who negotiated the final few minutes expertly and saw the game out to a strong conclusion.