Doncaster Knights 18

Bristol Rugby 38

BRISTOL avenged their 33-22 defeat in the British & Irish Cup tie at Ashton Gate in October, with a much improved second-half performance to take maximum points from their trip to Castle Park.

Hooker Jason Harris-Wright crossed for two tries plus one each from scrum-half Rhodri Williams and one from Alapati Leiua with three conversions and four penalties from fly-half Ian Madigan.

“It was great to come up to Doncaster and get a bonus-point win so overall it was job done and the boys are happy,” said full back Mat Protheroe, who was one of four changes made by Bristol from the side that beat Nottingham 50-21 a week earlier.

“Obviously in the first half we were a bit slow which we spoke about at half time and we believed that the five points were still available.

“You can test that character when tings aren’t going your way and the flow of the game was going up and down. So credit to the boys for sticking with our systems and when Alapati went over there was a great feeling in the camp.”

The Knights have failed to secure a victory in their last five Championship outings but Bristol only had a slender 13-10 lead at the break after Madigan had landed his second penalty on the stroke of half time.

The visitors had built-up a 10-0 advantage after a Madigan’s first penalty and his conversion of Haris-Wright’s touchdown.

However, the Knights replied through a try from wing Tyson Lewis, with fly-half Simon Humberstone converting and adding a penalty.

Early in the second half Madigan and Humberstone exchanged penalties but it was Bristol began to up the pace.

Protheroe gave the scoring pass for Rhodri Williams to score under the posts. Madigan converts and added his third penalty.

Harris-Wright crossed for his second try of the game, Madigan converted, but Doncaster kept chipping away and wing Curtis Wilson crossed for their second try but was later yellow-carded for a high tackle on replacement Siale Piutau, Bristol used the extra-man to claim their try-scoring bonus point as Protheroe and replacement Billy Searle linked-up to Leiua.

Doncaster Knights scorers - tries: M Challinor, C Wilson; cons: S Humberstone; pens: S Humberstone (2). 

Bristol scorers- tries: J Harris-Wright (2), R Williams, A Leiua; cons: I Madigan (3); pens: I Madigan (4).

Doncaster Knights: C Cowell; C Wilson, M Clark, W Owen, T Lewis; S Humberstone (D Cusack 73), M Heaney (T James 67); R List (O Evans 44), B Hunter (C Langdon 60-72), J Sprotson (C Quigley 57), M Challinor (J Bergmanas 67), M Eames, A Shaw (A Batt 67), M Hills (captain), J Hill.

Bristol: M Protheroe; J Williams, W Hurrell (S Piutau, 47-60, B Searle 60), T Pisi (B Gompels 78), A Leiua; I Madigan (S Piutau 67), R Williams (A Uren 77); S Tonga’uiha (R Bevington 50), J Harris-Wright, G Cortes (N Thomas 50), J Joyce, C Vui, S Jeffries, D Thomas, J Crane.