The Knights exited the cup after a 15-0 defeat to Nottingham this evening.

Doncaster produced an encouraging first half performance as they battled against the wind, but couldn’t find a way past a strong Notts defence. After the interval, two tries from the home side was enough to put any hopes of silverware to the sword.

The first half get off to an positive start as Curtis Wilson avoided a tackle, before offloading to Tom James, who made it into the opposition 22 before being halted.

However, three penalties in quick succession allowed the home side push the Knights back into their own half.

Doncaster rallied back with a decent break from Charlie Foley, followed by a good pen towards the corner from the fly-half as the visitors began to build some sustained pressure.

Midway though the first half, yellow cards were shown to both Marc Thomas and Anseko Sio as both sides had to battle on with 14 men.

On the 30 minute mark, Nottingham scored a penalty at their third attempt as Shane O’Leary added three points from a central position in the Doncaster 22.

The half ended with the Knights gaining more territory, but could not find a way past a resilient home side.

After the interval, it was Neil Fowkes’ side that started the brighter when Will Simonds darted away from just outside the 22 to dot down. Canadian International O’leary added the extras to make it 10-0 just one minute into the second half.

The game was then made a tougher task as Steve McColl was shown a yellow card. Although, the away side then enjoyed their best spell of the second half as they began to push towards the Notts 22. Their best chance of the half came in the form of a line out 10 metres out, but the ball missed everyone and Foley’s kick from the bouncing ball went over the try line with the home side quickest to the ball.

Just five minutes later, the Knights were made to pay for their missed chance as Will Owen broke away down the left to score in the corner. O’leary kicked his conversion short to make it 15-0 after 64 minutes.

As the game clicked past the 70 minute mark, Nottingham took control and played most of their rugby in the Doncaster half and squashed any signs of a threat from the visitors to round off a disappointing second half South Yorkshire outfit.

Match Statistics

Knights XV: 15. Cameron Cowell 14. Curtis Wilson(41’McColl) 13. Jack Roberts 12. Lloyd Hayes 11. Tyson Lewis 10. Charlie Foley 9. Tom James(61’Cullen) 1. Marc Thomas 2. Will Holling(59’Edgson) 3. Andrew Foster(65’Suter) 4. Matt Challinor (c)(61’Birch) 5. Morgan Eames 6. Fotu Lokotui(26’Quigley(33’Lokotui)(59’Hills) 7. Wian Conradie 8. Tom Calladine

Replacements: 16. George Edgson 17. Colin Quigley 18. Dan Suter 19. Rouban Birch 20. Michael Hills 21. Reiss Cullen 22. Sam Olver 23. Steve McColl

Nottingham XV: 15. Sean Scanlon (c) 14. David Williams 13. Luke Peters 12. Will Simonds 11. Jack Spittle 10. Shane O’leary 9. Alex Dolly 1. Aniseko Sio 2. Luke Cole 3. Oisin Heffernan 4. Llewelyn Jones 5. Danny Qualter 6. Seb Cicil 7. Will Owen 8. Josh Poulett

Replacements: 16. Jake Farnworth 17. Tom Hill 18. Jamie Jack 19. Ollie Chessum 20. Tui Uru 21. Alex Crocker 22. Harry Strong 23. Ben Foley

Tries: Simmonds, Owen

Conversions: O’leary

Penalties: O’leary