Doncaster Knights v Bristol: Griffiths hopes fortune will favour Knights in B&I Cup semi-final

The former Premiership club completed a Championship double over the Knights with a 27-12 victory at Castle Park less than a month ago.

But with the winners being assured of a home game in the final on Good Friday against the winners of the Worcester-Leinster A tie, there is an added incentive for Clive Griffiths’ men.

“We’d love to get through to the final and everyone playing tomorrow will be giving it 100 per cent,” said director of rugby Griffiths, who lacks the cup-tied Terrence Hepetema, Ume Fosita and Ollie Stedman.

“We know it’s going to be tough but it’s about time that we got our share of the 50-50 calls and the bounce of the ball goes our way against Bristol because we didn’t get that in the two league games.

“We also contributed to our downfall by making too many handling errors in the game at Castle Park and we gave them an interception try early in the second half.

“As I said after the game I was disappointed we didn’t make them work harder but we never stopped trying and we showed what we can do in the last ten minutes when we scored two late tries.

“That is our only defeat in our last four games and we always knew it would be tough to beat Bristol given the size of their budget and the their strength in depth.

“I’m happy with how things have been going and we look to be in good shape going into our last five league games starting at London Scottish next Friday.”

Knights last reached the B&I Cup semi-finals in 2010.