London Scottish stun Doncaster Knights in 0-12 defeat at home
12th October 2024
A strong London Scottish team, fed by eight Harlequin’s academy and three Harlequin’s loanees, secure a win over the Knights at Castle Park.
The visitors looked dangerous from the start as they made their way down to the 5m line almost immediately and carried with intent. Jordan Olowofela was quick off the line to intercept a Scottish pass, which gave Doncaster some go-forward.
The Knights continued to work as they won a penalty at the first scrum; Morgan Bunting then placed a nice kick to touch allowing the Knights to attack within 5m. But, Scottish defended well and turned the ball over at the breakdown.
This then gave the visitors momentum to work their way down to the other end of the pitch. They spent many phases fighting to get over the line and eventually Sam Riley found a gap to dive over. The conversion was missed.
The Knights showed some fight to keep the visitors out as Scottish dominated possession for the remainder of the first half but took no more points. A brilliant jackal from Rhys Tait contributed to holding Scottish out. However, errors in attack meant Doncaster were unable to create any home points.
Half time score 0-5.
London Scottish came out firing during the second half as they scored in the 41st minute. They moved the ball quickly down the line to exploit a gap out on the wing as their outside centre, Sean Kerr received the ball back inside to carry it over.
Ex-Doncaster Knights player Alec Lloyd-Seed scored the conversion to add the extra two points.
For the remainder of the second half, Doncaster defended well to restrict Scottish from gaining any more points. However, handling errors and discipline prevented them from utilising any attack they managed to build.
Ollie Fox moved to scrum half at the start of the second half. Fox was awarded Doncaster Knight’s player of the match because he provided quick ball and energy to the Knights.
There were a handful of other notable individual performances, Thom Smith made a great turnover and carried hard. Connor Edwards gained a lot of ground with dominant carries and George Wacokecoke made countless impressive tackles when defending.
The Knights spent the majority of the second half in attack and had roughly eight chances where they came close to the line, but errors meant they weren’t converted into points.
London Scottish defended brilliantly, turning the ball over when defending their try line, three times.
This meant the final score was 0-12.
Doncaster’s next home game will see them face Premiership team, Sale Sharks in the Premiership Cup. You can buy tickets for this fixture here.
