'Life is tough right now': Joe Ford after Doncaster Knights kick into Newcastle's hands

Up next is another contest with a Premiership team this Friday evening against Sale Sharks at the Salford Community Stadium which means a return to the club for whom Doncaster’s head coach, Joe Ford, played almost 50 games between 2013-16.

Friday’s game is the second in the competition against Sale who won the first encounter at Castle Park in November by only 43-37 as Doncaster rose to the challenge.

In the Newcastle match, tries by prop Connor Davidson and full-back, the excellent Telusa Veainu, stressed how dangerous Doncaster can be when playing to their full potential, only occasionally seen this season so far.

One important area Ford is working on before travelling across the M62 is his team’s indiscipline which cost them 14 penalties against the Falcons.

“It was disappointing because if you are ill-disciplined, you don’t have the ball, so against Sale we have to put into practice the lessons we’ve learned from the Newcastle match, otherwise we won’t have the ball to attack,” said Ford.

“Sale have a brilliant pack and a good kicking game, so we must be disciplined.

“We looked good in attack against Newcastle, centre Zach Kerr was outstanding, and I thought our pack showed plenty of fight and I thought we had Newcastle in the scrum and lineout.

“But we gifted too many points, and couldn’t win any of the scraps on the floor. Life’s a bit tough just now, but in three or four games this season, results have gone to the last play, and they’ve all gone against us. So, we’ve got to hang in there and keep improving.”

Newcastle scored three tries in each half in an entertaining cup tie in which Doncaster gained plenty of ball but arguably could have created more scoring opportunities if they had run the ball more rather than kicking it back to the Premiership team.