Donny had no answers for newly crowned Champions Bristol Rugby who put on a real show in front of a bumper home crowd to run in ten tries for an comprehensive 68-10 win. 

The Knights arrived at Ashton Gate having been victorious on each of their last three trips to the stadium. However, any hopes of a fourth consecutive victory were quickly quashed as the Premiership bound home side subjected Donny to a ruthless display of their capabilities.

The scoring began almost immediately as tight head prop Gaston Cortes barreled over at the back of a driving maul just two minutes after kick off with the Knights pinned into their own five metre following a penalty against Jack Ram. Ian Madigan enjoyed a perfect evening with the boot, slotting his first from the touch line to make the score 7-0.

Donny did hit back with a little bit of resistance following the opening score and got on the board courtesy of a Dougie Flockhart penalty after good work from Mat Clark in midfield lead to an infringement by the Bristol defence.

Unfortunately, the game’s second quarter belonged firmly to the hosts as they accelerated into a unlivable pace, scoring at regular intervals.

Luke Morahan got his first of the afternoon, collecting a long, wide pass from scrum half Rhodri Williams after play had been brought in field from another deep line out. This was quickly followed by a rather fortuitous effort for Soane Tonga’uiha as a loose offload ricocheted from a stray leg to fall kindly into the prop’s arms who gladly accepted the gift.

The hosts added another two scores before the break, the first a fine piece of offensive play from Morahan who skipped through some lackluster defence to dot down for his second. Then on the stroke of half time Charlie Foley was cruelly beaten by the bounce of a ball as he chased back after a grubber kick and Siale Piutau was on hand to profit.

Madigan’s fifth conversion made the half time score 35-3 and Donny had a mountain to climb.

On the evening they lifted the Championship trophy, the Bristolians had no intention of taking the foot off the gas in the second stanza and produced and equally dominant showing after the change of ends.

Three more tries in the ten minutes following halftime from Sam Jeffries, Alapati Leiua and Morahan, saw the hosts pass the fifty point mark and there was real concern about how bad it might get. Thankfully the Knights did stem the scoring slight in the game’s closing stages.

Donny managed to string a few spells of possession together and had half chances through the likes of Cameron Cowell and Josh Tyrell but could not get any real purchase against the electric home defence.

Bristol’s Williams duo combined smartly for their ninth try of the evening on 67 minutes, full back Jordan collected a miss pass that was so nearly intercepted by Flockhart and accelerated past the cover. Scrum half Rhodri was in support to take an inside pass and finish under the posts.

Donny got over a consolation try with just over five minutes left to play as centre Les Klim hit a smart line following a well driven deep scrum and Flockhart converted.

Bristol had the final say however as Morahan recorded his fourth try of the evening when the winger intercepted a short pass on the blind side and raced away to make the final score 68-10.

One to forget for the Knights who just ran into a Bristol side playing with absolute Premiership quality. The Knights finish the season at Castle Park on April 28^th no doubt determined to put down a marker following a disappointing evening.

Match Statistics

Bristol XV; 15. Jordan Williams; 14. Luke Morahan, 13. Alapati Leiua (Callum Sheedy 59’), 12. Sialei 11. David Lemi (Andy Uren 75’); 10. Ian Madigan (Jack Tovey 68’), 9. Rhodri Williams; 1. Soane Tonga’uiha (Ryan Bevington 50’), 2. Nick Fenton-Wells, 3. Gaston Cortes (James Lay 50’), 4. Joe Joyce, 5. Ed Holmes, 6. Sam Jeffries (Nick Haining 45’), 7. Sam Graham (Will Capon 68’), 8. Jordan Crane (c).

Replacements: 16. Will Capon, 17. Ryan Bevington, 18. James Lay, 19. Nick Haining, 20. Andy Uren, 21. Callum Sheedy, 22. Jack Tovey

Tries; Cortes 2’, Morahan 23’, 35’ 49’, 78’ Tonga’uiha 27’, Piutau 40’, Jeffries 42’, Leiua 44’ Williams 67’

Conv; Madigan 3’, 23’, 27’, 35’, 40’, 42’, 49’ Sheedy 67’

Pens;

Knights XV: 15) Cameron Cowell, 14) Dougie Flockhart, 13) Mat Clark (Les Klim 46’), 12) Lloyd Hayes, 11) Tyson Lewis, 10) Charlie Foley (Simon Humberstone 45’), 9) Tom James (Michael Heaney 65’), 1) Richard List (Owen Evans 47’), 2) Ben Hunter (Curtis Langdon 52’), 23) Colin Quigley (Joe Sproston 47’), 4) Matt Challinor (Adam Batt 64’), 5) Nick Civetta, 6) Alex Shaw, 7) Jack Ram, 8) Josh Tyrell.

Replacements: 16) Curtis Langdon, 17) Owen Evans, 18) Joe Sproston, 19) Adam Batt, 20) Lesley Klim, 21) Michael Heaney, 22) Simon Humberstone.

Tries; Klim 73’

Conv;Flockhart 73’

Pens; Flockhart 8’

Attendance; 13,100

Referee: Greg MacDonald