Doncaster Knights beat Ampthill but boss Steve Boden not content

Knights have won four out of seven games and are now sixth in the Championship standings on 21 points just behind Bedford and Nottingham.

The league campaign resumes on December 3 when Doncaster travel to Coventry.

But for the next three weekends, the Castle Park side, who scored five tries to three in a 35-19 win over Ampthill on Saturday, are concentrating on the cup with fixtures at home to Coventry and Bedford with a trip to London Scottish sandwiched in between.

If Doncaster can repeat their first half performance, in which they scored four excellent tries to lead 28-5, they’ll enjoy a successful run in the cup.

But if they reproduce the form shown in the second 40 minutes when they were sloppy, allowing Ampthill to score two tries, they will fail to qualify for the next round.

Tries by hooker Will Holling, centre Joe Margetts, flanker Sam Daly and winger Maliq Holden revealed Doncaster at their best but after being so dominant, they declined rapidly as Ampthill began to control ball and territory and recovered to 28-19.

However, on 71 minutes, common sense returned as replacement forward John Kelly crashed over from a scrum to confirm a victory against opponents who were so indisciplined they received three yellow cards.

Knights director of rubgy Steve Boden was critical of his team’s performance

He said: “We played some good stuff in the first half but our execution and work rate were poor in the second. We coughed up four or five opportunities. It could have been 50 or 60 to us.

“Some of our rugby is of a high level and then the other half is low level. We are too inconsistent and some of the lads need to be fitter.”