Knights regrouped and, despite losing two players to the sin-bin in the first ten minutes of the second half, they stopped the home side earning a bonus point.

But when Nottingham were also reduced to 13 men in the second half Knights could not capitalise.

Nottingham opened the scoring after ten minutes when fly half Tim Taylor raced through a flatfooted Knights defence to score out wide.

Even that early in the game the Knights were consistently penalised and the indiscipline prevented them asserting their authority.

Doncaster hit back on 23 minutes through an Ali Warnock drop goal but they suffered a double blow when defensive errors handed Taylor, and full back Dave Jackson, a try each in the space of three minutes.

Jackson had an off day with his boot and, after they managed to get a grip of their defensive problems, Knights ended the half with two penalties from Lennard against one from the Nottingham man.

Turning around 18-9 Doncaster needed a vastly improved performance after the break but they fell foul of the referee when lock Bryn Griffiths and then No 8 Chris Planchant were yellow carded.

With a two man advantage Nottingham had a couple of clear try scoring chances but an improved away defensive performance, led by flanker Simon Grainger, kept them at bay.

By now the match had deteriorated into a war of attrition and, no sooner were the Knights back to full strength, it was Nottingham's turn to play short as they had two players sin-binned.

With their numerical advantage in the pack, the Knights decided to take Nottingham on up front but they lost several good positions due to their indiscipline again.

As the game approached the whistle Doncaster showed naivety by failing to seek a bonus point through two long distance penalties and a drop goal chance which would have at least given them something from a disappointing game.

Team: Carter, C Hughes, Tonga'uiha, McColl, Bishop (Lennard 9); Warnock, Hallam; List, (T Davies 56 (Toke 72)), Boden, Ta'u (Cusack 40), Kenworthy, Griffiths, Kettle (Cochrane 42), Planchant, Grainger. Unused subs: Albinson, Smith.