A SECOND consecutive defeat in the British and Irish Cup leaves Nottingham at the foot of Pool Eight as Doncaster's first half dominance earned them a 27-13 victory.

Nottingham's inexperience showed in opening term as they were rarely able to mount any concerted attacking threat at Meadow Lane.

Experience only comes with game time though, and several of Nottingham's promising youngsters will have benefited from the chance to test themselves against Championship opposition - Tom Calladine and Rory Lynn in particular appearing to relish that chance.

It was also another opportunity for on-loan Luke Frixou to show his capabilities, whilst Jake Barron, another loan player, came off the bench in the late stages.

After an opening couple of minutes in which both sides seemed content to kick possession away it was the Green and Whites who had the first chance to get points on the board. A penalty a couple of metres inside the Doncaster half looked ambitious, and although Lynn hit the ball well and got the distance it drifted wide.

But it was the visitors doing most of the attacking and a couple of close range lineouts saw the pack drive over, with hooker Rhys Buckley getting the try. Jamie Lennard's conversion attempt was off target.

A good counter attack from Nottingham brought them a second penalty chance, a little nearer this time, for Lynn to make it 3-5.

Although this lifted the Green and Whites, handling errors cost them several promising positions and they paid for those mistakes when Doncaster got a second penalty midway through the first half for Lennard to make it 3-8.

Within a minute the visitors forced their second try as flanker Jethro Rawlings crossed in the left hand corner, Lennard converting.

Again Nottingham hit back well, a second penalty from Lynn making it 6-15, but they were conceding too many penalties, particularly at the scrum, and Lennard punished them with two late kicks to make it 6-21 at half time.

That came after Nottingham's best attack of the half had threatened a try as they drove form a lineout inside the visitors' 22 before eventually knocking on.

It soon got worse as Doncaster won a penalty in the opening minute of the second half, and although Lennard's shot was wide he made no mistake a couple of minutes later, as the home defence strayed offside, to open up an 18 point lead.

As the likes of Brent Wilson, Joe Duffey, James Arlidge and Sean Romans joined the action over the course of the  third quarter, so Nottingham began to fight their way back into it.

But a try from David Jackson, converted by Lynn, proved to be their only second half score.

They put the visitors under plenty of pressure over the final 15 minutes, but could not find a way through.

It was left to Lennard to complete the scoring with his fifth penalty to make it 13-27.

Nottingham Rugby 13 (Jackson Try; Lynn Conv; Lynn 2 Pen) Doncaster 27 (Buckley, Rawlings Tries; Lennard Conv; Lennard Pen 3)

Nottingham: 15 James Stokes 14 David Jackson 13 David Priest (Savage, 51mins) 12 Jack Bradford 11 Jack Cobden 10 Rory Lynn (Arlidge, 56mins) 9 Fin Barnham (Romans, 56mins) 1 Michael Holford 2 Ollie Taylor (Duffey, 58mins) 3 Matt Shields (Parr, 76mins) 4 Joe Quinn 5 Rupert Cooper (Barron, 76mins) 6 Luke Frixou (Brent Wilson, 48mins) 7 Tom Calladine 8 Dan Montagu.

Referee: Tom Foley

Attendance: 1034