London Skolars 10 Doncaster RLFC 30: Doherty hat-trick sees Dons home

Sam Doherty: Second half try hat-trick for the Dons

All three of Doherty’s tries – the third of which he scored in the last minute – came during second half which featured several lengthy breaks in play.

The two teams left the field late in the third quarter due to fears about the players’ safety due to thunder and lightning.

Play was also held up following a brawl after Doherty had touched down for his second try on 70 minutes following some excellent handling, the unconverted try making the score 22-10 and left the in-form Skolars needing to score two converted tries to win the game.

Skolars had a man sin-binned in the last ten minutes in the incident which gave full-back Tom Carr the chance to kick a 77th minute penalty.

The Dons were the first to threaten and didn’t have long to wait to celebrate a score – skipper Kyle Kesik scoring a trademark try from acting half-back close to the line.

Carr added the extras before hitting the target with a penalty from the halfway line to make it 8-0.

London hit back strongly and both centres Will Lovell and Aaron Small were held up over the line in quick succession.

The Dons increased their lead on the half-hour, Sheriff bagging his seventh try of the season when getting on the end of an astute kick to the corner by young stand-off Jordan Howden, who orchestrated play well throughout.

Carr again tagged on the conversion to leave Skolars – who had beaten fancied Barrow and Keighley in their previous two home games, trailing 14-0.

Skolars hit back just before the interval when scrum-half James Woodburn-Hall broke the line and committed Carr in a two-on-one situation before sending second-rower Mike Worrincy over for a converted try.

Lovell touched down for Skolars when play resumed to make it 18-10 and the deficit would have been even less had Woodburn-Hall not lost the ball in the act of scoring.

London Skolars: Walker; Nash, Lovell, Small, Paxton; Coleman, Woodburn-Hall; Dollapi,Lawrence,Williams,Worrincy, Chester. Subs: Sykes, Mbaraga, Driver, Gray.

Dons: Carr, Sheriff, Doherty, L Welham, Foggin-Johnson; Howden, Hedges; Scott, Kesik, M Nicholson, Walton, Foster, Milton. Subs: Wright, B Nicholson, Castle. O’Donnell.