Doncaster Knights scrape uncertain win over London Scottish as Tyson Lewis earns appearance landmark

After the recent thrashing at Coventry, Doncaster urgently needed a victory, but it was far from convincing and was achieved with little to spare.

Second half tries by backs Maliq Holden, George Simpson, who sprinted more than 40 metres to score brilliantly, and replacement hooker, Will Holling, driven over when Scottish were reduced to 13 with two forwards in the sinbin, enabled the Knights to overcome a 14-0 deficit.

This uncertain but welcome win moves Doncaster up to fifth in the Championship on 25 points with a record of five victories from nine games.

The Knights have a highly talented, full-time squad which currently is failing to reach its potential - surprising considering the power of the pack and the pace in the three-quarters.

Having fought back and with Scottish undermanned, it was baffling why the ball was kicked away when instead Doncaster could have used their backs to gain the four-try bonus point.

Nevertheless, on a special occasion for winger Tyson Lewis, appearing in his 200th match, Doncaster showed character to beat competitive opponents who probably would have won if they had not conceded so many penalties and three yellow cards.

“Look, we got a win and got some points on the board on the back of the Coventry result. That’s the important thing,” said Lewis, 37, now running Doncaster’s academy but playing again because of injuries.

“We lacked composure in key areas and didn’t come away with points in the opening 20 minutes.”

Doncaster Knights: McBryde (Simpson 47), Holden, Margetts, Edwards, Lewis, Olver, Dolly, Carlile (Pope 58), Roberts (Holling 40), Armstrong (Garside 40), Ehizode, Murphy, Daly(Smith 40), Cardew (Vukasinovic 58), Kelly.

London Scottish: Slevin, Mehson, Anderson, Bradley, Cleaves, Sheppard, Petrozzi, Nwakor-Nwanaebi, Morris, Hobson, Bridge, Jurevicius, Trenholm, Ingall, Wallis.

Referee: A Wookey.