HENLEY Hawks held on to beat Doncaster Knights 11-10, inflicting a first defeat of the season on the National 1 leaders.
The hosts went ahead decisively from No 8 Robbie Stapley’s 51st-minute try and closed it out with some excellent defence.
Doncaster, however, missed four potentially match-winning penalties after that.
Fly half Paul Roberts wasted the first two before wing Elliott Davies took over without success. Henley gave a second debut to on-loan London Welsh fly half Will Robinson, who took just six minutes to open his account with a penalty.
Doncaster’s ex-London Welsh flanker Michael Hills lasted eight minutes before going off injured.
His side suffered another blow when wing Paul Jarvis was denied a try for a foot in touch.
Robinson’s second penalty made it 6-0 on 20 minutes.
But tries from centre Bevon Armitage and replacement Adam Kettle gave Doncaster a 10-6 half-time lead.
Eight minutes into the second half, Stapley struck the winning blow after a 30-metre driving maul to leave Henley in eighth place.
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