'Young, hungry and ambitious' Doncaster Knights expect stern test from Bristol Bears and Northampton Saints

Knights got off to a winning start in the competition, which features teams from the top two professional tiers of English rugby for the first time this season, when they beat Cambridge 38-11 on Friday.

They take on Championship rivals London Scottish in their second match on Saturday before tougher tests await against Ealing Trailfinders and Premiership pair Bristol Bears and Northampton Saints.

"I think most Premiership teams will be playing a lot of young guys until the later rounds but I would imagine Bristol and Northampton are going to go as strong as they can (against Knights) because they start the Premiership campaign a week or two later," said Knights' director of rugby Boden.

"That will be a really good test."

The pool stage of the competition takes place over the next four weeks before the 2023/24 league campaign begins next month.

Knights must finish top of their pool to qualify for the semi-finals in February.

"It will be interesting to see what they do next year. It would be nice if we can do it during the season," said Boden.

"It's great for the players to get that exposure. That (the Premiership) is where they want to be."

Despite the well-documented competitive imbalance between the top two tiers in England - as well as the haves and have nots in the Championship - the prospect of a potential heavy defeat does not weigh heavily on Boden's mind.

"We try and look at the positives in everything we do here," he said.

"We have just got to think about going and competing and putting our best foot forward.

"In defeat there are always a lot of lessons. It's good for our group to go 'this is the difference between the Championship and the Premiership'."

Signing young players who can develop and go on to bigger and better things, with Doncaster or elsewhere, continues to form the backbone of Boden's recruitment strategy.

"If someone said to me 'I want to play 200 games here' I would say 'you are the wrong person for me'," Boden revealed.

"We are different to a Jersey or an Ealing. We want people that are young, hungry and ambitious."