Doncaster Knights: '˜You can never question the heart of this team'

Ealing’s biggest defeat this season had been by just nine points prior to their arrival in South Yorkshire.

But they had no answer to a rampant Doncaster side which produced its best performance of the season to keep hopes of another top-four finish alive.

“When you take everything into account that has happened to us this season that has to be one of the best performances from a Doncaster side while I’ve been here,” said long-serving director of rugby Clive Griffiths.

“We went into it with a bit of a ‘backs-to-the-wall’ mentality but the result was emphatic and we could have won by more in a game which resulted in Bristol being crowned champions.

“Some people might have questioned some of our performances, the errors we’ve made and the tactics we’ve employed this season, but you can never question the heart of the players in this team.

“Everyone put in a shift that everyone associated with the club should be proud of against a team which had lost just three games and two of them by just a point.

“We talked about getting off to a good start and we did that when scoring two early tries.

“We let them back into the game with a try from a penalty, but we regrouped and Andy Bulumakua’s interception try made it 21-7 at the break.

“We knew that they had come from behind on several occasions to win games in the second half and we spoke at half time about taking the sting out of their attack in the first ten minutes which did as well as scoring the first try of the half.

“I had a few concerns, given their record, when they got it back to 28-14 but we pulled away again and were never in danger after that.

“As I say, it was a great result and it must have been a very enjoyable game to watch for the spectators because we were able to capitalise on conditions which were conducive to playing the sort of rugby we like to play.”