Doncaster Knights 29-24 Nottingham

Doncaster Knights secured 3rd spot in the Greene King IPA Championship with a 29-24 win over Nottingham Rugby as the side ran out in front of a home crowd for the first time in 440 days.

Against a Nottingham side resurgent in form the Knights drew first blood early as Howard Packman raced over from the 22m for a fine individual effort after a stray offload bounced his way, Sam Olver added the extras for a quickfire 7-0 lead, but the lead wasn’t held for long.

Nottingham levelled the scores when David Williams, who enjoyed a fine afternoon, touched down before after cutting a sharp line off Matt Riddlington.

Quick thinking from Knights scrum-half Gus Warr aided the Knights into a 14-7 half-time lead as the Sale man took a tap penalty with the visiting defences off guard.

The lead quick disappeared after the restart as Jake Farnworth intercepted a stray pass and showed a turn of foot an outside back would be proud of never mind a a front row.

The Green and Whites then went in front on the hour mark with Williams running in his second try and Alex Dolly’s third conversion put them 21-14 ahead. On what was supposed to be a celebratory occasion for the Knights, Notts looks in danger of stealing the show.

The hosts quickly dragged themselves back level as Will Holling crashed over at the back of a maul before Olver and Dolly traded penalties to make it 24-24 heading into the closing stages.

That still left time for the grandest of finishes as replacement Doncaster nine Sam Pocklington collected an audacious off load from Conor Joyce before fighting his way over for a last gasp winner and the bonus point try, much to the home crowd’s delight.

Match Statistics

Knights XV | 15) Billy McBryde, 14) Kyle Evans, 13) Charlie Foley 12) Connor Edwards 11) Howard Packman, 10) Sam Olver, 9) Gus Warr, 1) Bomber Hislop, 2) Ben Hunter, 3) Gaz Denman, 4) Matt Challinor (c), 5) Matt Smith, 6) Sam Graham, 7) Jack Davies, 8) Guido Volpi

Replacements | 16) Will Holling, 17) Conrad Cade, 18) Joe Jones, 19) Will Britton, 20) Conor Joyce, 21) Sam Pocklington, 22) James Newey 23) James Kane.

Nottingham XV | 15 Luke Hibberd 14 Jack Stapley 13 David Williams 12 Charlie Thacker 11 Joe Browning, 10 Matt Riddington 9 Alex Dolly 1 Toby Williams 2 Jake Farnsworth, 3 Ben Betts 4 Callum Allen
5 Luke Frost 6 Willie Ryan 7 Carl Kirwin, 8 Josh Poullet

Replacements: 16 Ben Sugars 17 Aniseko Sio 18 Harri O’Connor 19 Jack Ramshaw 20 George Cox 21 Michael Stronge 22 Theo Manihera