Sinclair eyes up Doncaster in Championship playoff

Jebb Sinclair has been retained in an unchanged London Irish lineup to take on Doncaster Knights at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday in the second leg of their Round 1 promotion playoff series. The Canadian second row came off late in the first meeting last weekend after taking a slight knock but has been passed fully fit to return to battle.

Irish took the first leg by an overwhelming 35-3 score at Castle Park and while their progression to the final round now looks all but rubber-stamped, they will be keen to put down a marker ahead of their likely clash with contenders Yorkshire Carnegie. The latter own a similar advantage over Ealing Trailfinders having won 34-16 in the first leg and can secure their spot in the Championship final if they avoid losing by more than 18 points.

Facing their final match of the 2016-17 season Doncaster have opted to make three changes to the starting lineup with another three on the bench. New Sale Sharks signing WillGriff John replaces Colin Quigley at tighthead prop, with Joe Sproston providing cover. Jarad Williams comes into the second row at Glen Young’s expense, and David Nolan is nominated as backup.

Tongan international Jack Ram has recovered sufficiently from injury to take up his spot on the blindside flank and in doing so pushes Canadian No 8 Aaron Carpenter to the bench with Alex Shaw shifted to the back to the scrum. Carpenter takes the vacant reserve role left by the injury sustained by Mat Clark at training during the week.

Kickoff is at 1:15pm local time, 8:15am Eastern. The match will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Mix.

DONCASTER KNIGHTS
1 Richard List, 2 Ben Hunter, 3 WillGriff John, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Jarad Williams, 6 Jack Ram, 7 Michael Hills (capt.), 8 Alex Shaw, 9 Michael Heaney, 10 Simon Humberstone, 11 Tyson Lewis, 12 Lloyd Hayes, 13 Andrew Bulumakau, 14 Dougie Flockhart, 15 Paul Jarvis

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 David Nelson, 18 Joe Sproston, 19 David Nolan, 20 Aaron Carpenter, 21 Sam Edgerley, 22 Declan Cusack

LONDON IRISH
1 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, 2 David Paice (capt.), 3 Ben Franks, 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5 Jebb Sinclair, 6 Mike Coman, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Ofisa Treviranus, 9 Brendan McKibbin, 10 James Marshall, 11 Joe Cokanasiga, 12 Fergus Mulchrone, 13 Asaeli Tikoirotuma, 14 Alex Lewington, 15 Tommy Bell

Replacements: 16 David Porecki, 17 Tom Court, 18 Oli Hoskins, 19 George Robson, 20 Conor Gilsenan, 21 Scott Steele, 22 Greig Tonks