As it was, after frustrating the Knights for most of the first half they were then blown away in the second, although two late tries banished fears of being ‘nilled’.

For most of the opening 40 minutes the Knights looked dangerous whenever they had the ball; but they tended to be too clever for their own good, resulting in a number of knock-ons denying them tries.

As for the Tigers, they appeared content to slow ball down and keep it tight when in possession, not showing much appetite to throw it around and look for the four tries that would at least guarantee them one point.

Once gain they conceded an early try, this time inside the opening two minutes when Tigers summer signing target, Chris Planchant, won a lineout 10 metres out and the ball was fed back to flanker Bryn Griffiths who was driven over. With fly-half Mark Woodrow adding the extras the Knights led 7-0.

The Tigers were then rewarded for some enterprising play with a 35-metre penalty, but Phil Jones was off target with the kick.

On 23 minutes his opposite number, Knights’ fly-half Mark Woodrow, showed him how to do it from 39 metres to extend his side’s lead to 10-0.

The Knights continued to enjoy the majority of possession and three minutes into time added on at the end of the first half it resulted in Tigers’ Ed Norris being shown the yellow card for the latest in a list of infringements in and around the ruck and maul area by his team-mates and Woodrow kicked the ensuing penalty to give the Knights a 13-0 lead at the turnaround.

The break didn’t appear to do the Tigers any favours, though, as two minutes after the restart the Knights ran in try number two.

From a lineout five metres inside the Tigers half the Knights used Oliver Cook as a battering ram to take play downfield where he offloaded to lock replacement Lisiate Fa’aoso who barged his way through ineffective tackling to touch down to the left of the posts. With Woodrow adding the extras the Knights led 20-0.

With the Tigers still down to 14 men the Knights continued to take full advantage and from the re-start kick they changed the direction of their attack twice to create a gap that wing Paul Bailey exploited to the full to run in try number three in the right-hand corner. Woodrow’s accuracy with the boot then extended the Knights’ lead further to 27-0.

Three minutes later poor Tigers ball retention allowed the Knights’ pack to pick and drive to the Sedgley line where Griffiths used his power to slice through the defence again to score his second try of the afternoon. Woodrow’s conversion made it 34-0 and the Tigers were looking another heavy defeat in the face.

But back to 15 men they picked up the pace and began to retain the ball more and force the Knights onto the back foot.

This resulted in Doncaster being penalised and prop Tom Davies was shown yellow this time. Just like the knights did when they had the man advantage, the Tigers turned the screw and elected to scrum a five-metre penalty. Scrum won, the ball was spun left to right where fullback Chris Hall joined the line at pace to cut through the stretched Knights’ defence and cross close to the posts; unfortunately Phil Jones’ off day with the boot continued and the conversion was missed.

Knock-ons continued to bedevil both sides until the Knights once more worked up a head of steam and intense pressure five metres from the Tigers’ line was rewarded when quick ball found replacement Tom Luke in space out on the left and Cerith Rees added the conversion to take the score to 41-5.

With the chance of match points no longer available the Tigers had only pride to play for and they did.

They stole possession at a Knights’ lineout just inside their own half and Luther Burrell drove play down the left hand channel, breaking tackles before offloading to debutant Danny White, also on loan from Leeds Carnegie.

He in turn found Adam Newton and Freeman Payne as the ball was moved right, where Hall once more broke the Knights’ line before feeding an inside pass to leading try scorer Chris Briers and he galloped to the posts to give Jones the easiest kick of the afternoon to make the final score a bit more respectable.

Fortunately results elsewhere went the Tigers’ way. The two teams below them in the league – currently filling the two relegation berths – both lost; Launceston going down 38-0 at London Welsh while Pertemps Bees were narrowly beaten 10-12 at home to Nottingham.

While the team immediately above them– Rotherham Titans – also lost, beaten 11-13 at home by Moseley.

DONCASTER: W. Davies, Bailey, Hunt, Bishop, Van Vuuren, Woodhall, B. Jones, T. Davies, Boden, Tau, Gross, Kenworthy, Griffiths, Cook, Planchant.
Replacements: Rees, Scully, Fa’aoso, Phillips, List, Luke, Toke
Tries: Griffiths 2, Fa’aoso, Bailey and Luke.
Conversions: Woodrow 4, Rees 1.
Penalties: Woodrow 2.
Yellow cards: T. Davies (54)

SEDGLEY: Hall, Van DeVenter, Craig (Payne 77), Burrell, Briers, Jones, Leck (White 77), Gazzola (A. Livesey 69), Roddam (Keys 60), Du Plessis (Birchall 79), Norris (Townson 63), Crous (Fourie 56), Newton, Ponton, Skurr.
Tries: Hall and Briers.
Conversions: Jones 1.
Yellow cards: Norris (43)