Rugby League: York City Knights 28 Doncaster RLFC 36

Doncaster leapfrogged York City Knights to regain fourth spot in the League One Super 8s after posting a thrilling 36-28 victory over the Minstermen at Bootham Crescent last night.

The result looked to be a foregone conclusion when the Dons led 30-0 at the end of the third quarter after producing their best performance on the road this season, up to the hour mark.

But York set up a grandstand finish to the match when scoring five tries without reply and they would have levelled the scores at 30-all had they converted their fifth two minutes from time.

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The Dons rode their luck and sealed a deserved victory with a last-minute interception try by stand-off Jordan Howden.

Beaten 46-16 by York at home in the league in March, the Dons had earlier scored a point a minute when racing into a 14-0 lead with tries by centre Sam Doherty (2) and prop Connor Scott.

York fell further behind when dual-registered Hull FC forward Iafeta Paleaaesina crashed over from close range and full-back Tom Carr again added the extras to make it 20-0.

York, who included a number of former Doncaster players, finished the half strongly but the Dons defended as well as they had attacked earlier – much to the delight of head coach Gary Thornton who was controversially sacked by the Minstermen two years ago.

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The Dons regained the initiative at the start of the second half and extended their advantage with a 45th minute converted try by Brad Nicholson.

York hit back strongly and came close to opening their account only to fall further behind on the hour when stand-off Jordan Howden took advantage of a kindly bounce to make it 30-0.

Dons: Carr, Foggin-Johnson, Jones-Bishop, Doherty, Sherriff, Howden, Hedges; Braham, Kesik, Scott, B Nicholson, Walton, Milton. Subs: Wright, Paleaaesina, Aizue, Castle