Newcastle Falcons 57 Doncaster Knights 0: Griffiths’ men on wrong end of a thumping as ex-Premiership side display their credentials

Just over an hour after seeing their rugby league neighbours Doncaster RLFC beaten 34-4 by Newcastle Thunder, Knights fared even worse when going down 57-0 in their Championship Cup Pool 2 clash.

It was a result which served to underline that relegated Falcons are likely to be the team to beat in both the league and cup this season.

Knights will be anxious to learn lessons from such an emphatic defeat, which will have knocked the players’ early-season confidence, ahead of Jersey’s visit on Saturday.

It took the Falcons over an hour to break down the Jersey defence in their 21-8 away win the previous week.

But they looked much sharper on home soil and ran in four tries before the interval to come in leading 24-0.

Former England fly-half Toby Flood linked up with Tom Arscott in the move which led to wing Adam Radwan touching down from a grubber-kick by the latter on nine minutes.

But for some scrambling cover defence which resulted in George Wacokecoke - who scored both tries against the Reds - losing the ball when looking a certain scorer, Falcons would have had a second on 16 minutes.

Unfortunately for the Castle Park outfit, who made wholesale changes to the side which had beaten Hartpury, it only proved a stay of execution and Radwan bagged a second try a couple of minutes later when he broke from his own half and had too much pace for the covering Charlie Foley.

Captained by summer signing Matt Smith, Knights lost young back-rower Sam Jones, who made an impressive start to the season against Hartpury, at the start of the second quarter and suffered another blow when Newcastle extended their lead with a converted try following a pick and go close to the line after a series of driving mauls.

Falcons swooped in again from close range to secure a bonus-point try on 35 minutes.

Knights rallied towards the end of the half without being able to turn pressure into points.

Any hopes that Knights might have entertained at the start of the second half of making a game out of it were effectively dashed as Falcons added another brace of tries in the opening ten minutes.

Jamie Blamire scored the first from close range on 42 minutes with Wacokecoke bursting two tackles to score. He then turned provider when setting up a try for Robinson which made it 43-0.

Newcastle would have scored again but for a try-saving tackle by full-back Lloyd Hayes.

Just when it was beginning to look as though Knights would keep the margin of defeat to under 50 points, Falcons scored twice in the closing minutes and came close to a third.

Knights: Hayes, Wilson, Evans, Lucock, Lewis, Foley, Cullen, Thomas, Edgson, Foster, Hicks, Smith, Jones, Pitman. Rep: Holling, Hislop, Beech, Challinor, Sproston, Pocklington, Olver, Birch.