Doncaster Knights blew hot and cold in their 36-20 B & I Cup Pool D win over Bedford Blues in front of another four-figure crowd at Castle Park.
Knights looked every bit unbeaten group leaders when racing to a 31-10 interval lead, but lost the plot in the second half.
“It was an inspiring first half performance,” enthused director of rugby Clive Griffiths. “All aspects of our play: our driving game, our wide game, our off-loading, was excellent. We showed that we will be very competitive if we do the simple things right.
“Our driving game and scrummaging was awesome, our lineout decent and we had a stream of possession.
“We didn’t capitalise on the field position we had in the first ten minutes of the second half and it became 31-15 instead of 38-10.
“Had we scored during that period the floodgates could have opened but we didn’t and it’s another lesson for us to learn - that when we’ve got teams pinned to the floor that we go for their jugular .We didn’t do that in the second half and too many aspects of our play broke down.
“We talk about game management a lot but in the second half we didn’t get it right and our control of the football was poor.
“To sum it up we were inspiring in the first half and uninspiring in the second.
“We had the momentum but couldn’t seize the initiative in the second and really ram home our advantage and our dominance.
“On a brighter note, we’ve picked up 15 points from our first three games and we’ll take some catching when the competition resumes next month.”