With Lyon’s two conversions the aristocrats were on their way to imposing their will

With Lyon’s two conversions, the aristocrats were on their way to imposing their will.Saints were still struggling to get into top gear but there was real quality about their next try, with Lyon’s kick sitting up for his grateful wing partner, Ade Gardner. Saints were making more mistakes than they do against League opposition, but they got down to business after 18 minutes when Kieron Cunningham’s strength took him over from dummy half.Even then, Doncaster got the ball back from the kick-off when Francis Meli fumbled, but a promising attack rebounded on them when Lyon scooped up Graham Holroyd’s kick and went almost the full length of the field before sending Sean Long in. Nobody expected that level of heroics from them last night but they made a solid start standing up to Saints’ early pressure and supplied some of their own when Lyon, of all people, knocked on from Shaun Leaf’s kick. Jamie Lyon led the way with five goals, a try and a big part in two others.
The last time Doncaster were at Knowsley Road in the league 12 years ago, they won and went top of the old First Division.

Unbeaten in Super League, Saints rested four regulars but were still too good for the brave visitors who kept them out for much of the first half before shipping tries. St Helens became the first side into the fifth round of the Challenge Cup as they defeated Doncaster, from National League One, with plenty to spare last night. The new professional club in Wales, the Celtic Crusaders, are unbeaten in the Northern Rail Cup, but face a step up in class when they travel to Rochdale Hornets.The only amateurs left in the competition, Thornhill Trojans, will end their Cup adventures in France, where they play the Catalans Dragons.The pick of tomorrow’s matches is undoubtedly at Wakefield, where the visit of Wigan brings Super League’s bottom two clubs together, with each hoping that the Cup can kick-start their season.Trinity will still be without David Solomona – the subject of interest from Wigan this week – and Ben Jeffries, while Tom Saxton, whose loan signing from Hull has now been made permanent, has a back injury.With Danny Orr injured and Tim Jonkers and Oliver Wilkes Cup-tied, the 18-year-old forward, Eamon O’Carroll, becomes yet another Wigan youngster to be thrown in at the deep end.If any Super League club is in danger of being knocked out by lower division opposition, it is surely Castleford at Widnes, the team they replaced in the top flight.. Nathan Blacklock is the player likely to lose his place after a substandard display against St Helens.Bradford, beaten by Hull on their Cup run last year, will have Paul Deacon back at scrum-half after a one-week absence for facial surgery.Today’s other ties feature some unfamiliar Challenge Cup names. We put ourselves in a position to win the game, even though we didn’t quite do it.”Kear will have Kirk Yeaman back in the centre after missing last week to be at the birth of his son. “It took a heck of a lot of winning and we want to make it very, very difficult for anyone to take it away from us.”Our performance at Bradford was just about our best of the season and we can draw a lot from that. Their coach, John Kear, now hopes they will draw inspiration from that performance as well as from still having the game’s oldest trophy still on their mantelpiece.”We aim to defend the Challenge Cup like proud champions,” he said.

They have lost four of their last five games, including a record 46-0 thrashing at home by St Helens last weekend.
One of their better performances, though, was a six-point defeat by Bradford three weeks ago – a match Hull could well have won. Hull won the Cup at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff last August, but their form in the Super League so far gives no grounds for confidence that they can retain it. The road to Twickenham – now that it has finally been confirmed as the venue for the 2006 Challenge Cup final – starts for the holders, Hull, at Odsal today and, on current form, will end there. “Williams supported me a lot, they helped me reach Formula One, and it’s all going well so far,” he said.Britain’s Anthony Davidson set the pace yesterday for Honda, but with Alex Wurz, Robert Kubica, Jenson Button, Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Raikkonen all separated by less than a second, the auguries are good for qualifying Doubtless Rosberg Jnr will be right in there, too..

With Kimi Raikkonen bound for Ferrari in 2007 and Juan Pablo Montoya at a low ebb Ron Dennis might see more value in signing a season-experienced Rosberg as a partner for incoming Fernando Alonso rather than take a chance on the young Britons Lewis Hamilton or Gary Paffett But Rosberg says he is happy where he is. It was just fantastic.”Rosberg Snr had an unhappy final year of Formula One with McLaren, but the rumours suggest Nico might yet end up there. “He retired at the end of 1986 when I was 18 months old – but in the mid-1990s he was racing in the DTM touring car series and I often went to races. He says he remembers nothing of his father’s career at the top level.

To watch Nico on a fast lap is to witness smoothness and control verging on the boring; watching Keke chasing a quick time used to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.Rosberg Jnr could not possibly be as hungry as his old man was, but last year he won the inaugural GP2 series that supports Formula One. He shares his speed, albeit in a more refined, flowing manner. Friday is traditionally the day on which those teams who run them let their test drivers do all the work as the race drivers preserve their equipment.In many respects, Rosberg is his father’s son. But his reasons were as profoundly practical as anything his father might have done on his way to the top.