Doncaster Knights aim to shine under Friday night lights

Cornish Pirates, who won 46-29 at Castle Park, inflicted a second successive league defeat on Knights whch saw them drop to fourth and anything but a win tomorrow could see one or more teams in the chasing pack climb above them.

“When you've lost you can't wait to get out there the following week and try and put things right,” said hooker Ben Hunter.

“Because it was a blank weekend we weren't able to do that but we've worked hard in training on the things we need to do better tomorrow - and that certainly includes defence - to get back to winning ways.

“I never question the work ethic of this team so it’s not a question of playing harder tomorrow but playing smarter and we probably haven’t shown that in some of our recent games.”

Hunter dismissed talk of the club’s late flurry against Pirates helping to cover some of the cracks.

“I would argue that it shows what we are about as a team,” he said. “It showed that we play for the full 80 minutes (irrespective of the score) and that’s never changed during my time at the club.

“I just think that as individuals we have to question ourselves at times in order to be better as a collective.

“If you look back to the Pirates game they executed the simple things well and we didn’t – at least not until the game was probably beyond us.

“On the day they got it right and we didn’t and that’s something we’ve reflected on in the last ten days or so.

“It’s going to be another tough challenge down there and we know what to expect.

“I’ve seen a bit of them. They’ve had some good results this season and they look a decent side.

“They are like most sides who come up from National One in that they are going to struggle until they come to terms with the Championship.

“They survived the first season after losing their early games and they’ve shown, in the second half of last season and the start of this, that they can now compete at this level.

“We romped to a big victory when we played them down there last season but, as I say, we are expecting a much tougher game tomorrow.”