Nottingham 13 Doncaster Knights 17: Back-to-back Championship Cup wins for Knights

Doncaster Knights became only the second side to win at Lady Bay this season when beating Nottingham 17-13 to claim a second successive Championship Cup win.
Tom James scored for the Knights in the win at NottinghamTom James scored for the Knights in the win at Nottingham
Tom James scored for the Knights in the win at Nottingham

In claiming their third straight victory in all competitions following a run of five successive defeats, Knights avenged a 20-15 defeat on the same ground back in late September.

But they rode their luck at times notably when Nottingham centre Will Millett put down a try-scoring pass in their 22 in the closing stages.

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The much-changed Knights suffered an early blow when fly-half Charlie Foley came off injured to be replaced by new dual-registeback Brett Connor after 13 minutes.

The Castle Park side enjoyed the better of the exchanges in the first quarter and a took a deserved lead when dual-registered hooker James Malcolm touched down on 15 minutes from a catch-and-drive move.

The recalled Dougie Flockhart added the extras prior to converting a 40m penalty to make it 10-0.

The Green and Whites opened their account with a 30m penalty by fly-half Gearoid Lyons just short of the half-hour mark. He had another chance to cut the deficit on 36 minutes but pulled his penalty wide.

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The home side drew level at the start of the second half with a close-range converted try by prop James Penman.

Knights regained the lead on 49 minutes, centre Will Owen breaking into the Nottingham 22 and finding pacey scrum-half Tom James, who touched down near enough for Flockhart to tag on the extras, up in support.

Despite being down to 14 men at the time the home side cut the deficit with a 59th minute penalty to set up a tense final quarter.

Knights:  Cowell, Flockhart, Creed, Owen, McColl, Foley, James; Hislop, Malcolm, Sprotson, Challinor, Eames, Ryan, Booth, Pitman. Rep: Nelson, Williams, Quigley, Hunter, Jarvis, Connor, Hayes.