North Wales Crusaders 34 Doncaster RLFC 48: Dons march on in League One play-offs

Ross Peltier was among Doncaster's try scorers in their win at North Wales Crusaders. Photo: Andrew Roe/AHPIX LTD

Richard Horne’s men dominated the first half at Stadiwm Zip World in Colwyn Bay and twice led the match by 30 points.

But a spirited Crusaders side refused to lie down and ran in 22 unanswered second half points before the Dons finally put the result beyond doubt.

Influential scrum half Matty Beharrell was once again the star of the show for the Dons with a try and eight conversions.

Doncaster will now go to Keighley next Sunday and the winners will face Workington Town in the play-off final.

The Dons burst out of the blocks and scored three converted tries through Liam Tindall, Aaron Ollett-Hobson and Ross Peltier to open up an 18-0 lead after just 14 minutes.

Brandon Douglas then went over and Ben Cockayne collected his own kick through to extend the lead to 30-0.

Crusaders reduced the deficit to 30-12 with converted tries either side of half time from Callum Hazzard and Brad Brennan.

A quickfire try double from Jason Tali and Beharrell seemingly took the game away from North Wales.

But the hosts were not done and ran in three tries in six minutes from Jordan Gibson, Ben Morris and Tom Johnson to reduce the deficit to 42-30.

Gav Rodden then powered over as the Crusaders eyed a remarkable comeback, although Johnson failed to convert and the gap remained at eight points with time running out.

Doncaster managed to take the sting out of the game in the final moments and a try from Jake Sweeting sealed a hard fought win.