Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire League
Lincoln City Knights 16
Rotherham Giants 24

A brace from Chris Chapman helped Rotherham Giants inflict a 24-16 victory over Lincoln City Knights.

Lincoln opened the scoring through Andy Donnor before Chapman’s brace gave the visitors an 8-6 lead by half time.

Rotherham added a further three scores, with tries from Donnor and Colin Whitham not enough to prevent defeat.

It was the first time ever the Knights have lost two consecutive games, and a performance that Coach Dave Moll wants to forget.

“We went from probably our best performance to our worst performance,” said Moll.

“We were complacent when we went out, and after we scored an easy opening try we just switched off and unfortunately Rotherham wanted it more than us.

“No fault in our effort today, but the harder we tried the more mistakes we made.

“We need to regroup and get our heads together and hopefully this defeat will help us get our mindset again.”

Captain John Turner added:

“It was a bit of a disappointment, and ill discipline around the ruck area caused us to tire ourselves out which led to handling errors, but further effort in training will make us even better,” said Turner.

Lincoln made the perfect start after a strong run from Dan Reeds allowed Donnor to break through several tackles before running in for a try, which Mark Pearson converted.

As the Knights continued to push forward Donnor, Pearson, Karl Sibbons and Craig King were all tackled metres short of the line.

But Lincoln lost their composure and allowed the Giants back into the game with two tries in three minutes. Chapman went over for two tries in the corner, but missed both attempts at goal, leaving Rotherham with a narrow two point advantage.

In the final minutes of the half a run from dummy half saw Turner tackled just short of the line, before Steve Blagdon was also halted just two metres out.

Lincoln almost got back into the game within five minutes of the restart when Graham Cass broke clear from halfway before offloading to Austin Huntley only to see the move ended by a knock on. Cass was soon in action again only to be tackled metres short of the line.

The Giants crossed for another converted try to extend their lead but Lincoln soon hit back. Jason Ward offloaded to Donnor who shrugged off a tackle before powering over for a try to reduce the deficit to just four points.

Rotherham moved further in front when John Dudley evaded several missed tackles to go over for a try, which Chapman converted.

The Giants missed a drop goal attempt, but Lincoln continued to pile forward with Donnor powering through several tackles before Pete Webster, Reeds and Cass were both tackled metres short of the line.

James Scothern went over for a try in the corner but the Knights salvaged some pride with the final play of the game. Whitham showed great strength to run through the defence for a great try, which Pearson converted.