Nottingham 20 Doncaster Knights 15 '“ Dominant run ended at Lady Bay

A late try by former Rotherham and Doncaster full-back Sean Scanlon secured the Green and Whites their third successive victory.

Knights '“  who have now lost three of their first five games '“ opened the scoring on 11 minutes during their first visit to the Nottingham 22.

As was the case in the defeat against Ealing last time out, they proved hard to defend against from a catch-and-drive following a 5m lineout and No 8 Josh Tyrell touched down near enough for fly-half Kurt Morath to add the extras.

Knights failed to build on the score and the home side enjoyed better of the territorial exchanges for the rest of the half.

Four successful penalties by fly-half Shane O'Leary saw the home side hit back to take a 12-7 lead prior to Morath kicking a second penalty on 37 minutes following a strong break by Tyrell.

But for some timely tackles by wing Tyson Lewis and centre Mat Clark, both of whom were back in the side after injury, Knights would have been more than just two points adrift at the break.

Knights, for whom scrum-half Tom James had gone close just after the break with a solo effort, regained the lead when wing Steve McColl rounded off a bout of slick handling to score an unconverted try.

The home side twice went close to a try before O'Leary levelled the scores with a fifth penalty on the hour.

Scanlon secured Nottingham's first win over Knights since December 2014 when linking up in attack and scoring their only try of the game.

Knights: Cowell, McColl, Hayes, Clark, Lewis, Morath, James; Hislop, Malcolm, Sprotson, Challinor, Civetta, Ryan, Calladine, Tyrell. Rep: Nelson, List, Williams, Hicks, Creed, Dawson, Foley.