Doncaster Knights: Clive Griffiths reacts to opening day win at Jersey Reds

“It was an excellent result from another tough opening game, as has been the case in the last two years when we’ve played (and lost) against the team relegated from the Premiership,” said director of rugby Clive Griffiths.

“It was a typical early season game and no matter what you do in pre-season it doesn’t compare to a full-on Championship game.

“So all credit to the boys for coming through a formidable task.

“We scored two excellent tries but we didn’t take other chances and at the end we had to defend well to hang on to our lead and win the game.

“Even a neutral would probably say we could have and should have won by a bigger margin.

“But if anyone had offered me a 26-24 win on the Saturday morning I would have snapped their hand off.

“As I say there was room for improvement but that is only to be expected at this stage of the season and that is what we (the coaches) are here for.”

Griffiths praised the contribution of match-winner Simon Humberstone, and was also pleased with the efforts of his forwards, all of whom sampled the action.

Knights had to make a change to their back division during the first half when full-back Paul Jarvis, who missed several warm-up games, suffered another hamstring injury.

“It’s the same leg but a different injury,” said Griffiths. “We’ll be sending him for a scan as quickly as possible.”

Summer signing Tom James, who slotted in well at full-back when coming on, suffered a broken nose when scoring Knights’ second try.