Guy Armitage couldn't have asked for a better start to the new season as the centre claimed a stunning hat-trick to help new club London Welsh to a 35-33 win over Doncaster Knights at Castle Park.

It was a first competitive hat-trick for the centre who joined Welsh in the summer from London Irish, having previously made four appearances for Welsh on loan from the Premiership outfit.

"It doesn't happen often, so it's a special day when it does,” said Armitage.

"There was way too much work to do on them. I'm usually okay just getting on the end of play, but I really felt it in my lungs.

"For the first try, Joe's [Carlisle] got great vision and he saw me floating out on the wing and he put in a beautiful pass.”

His second came from a lineout steal by Welsh on their own 22 – Kieran Murphy crashed up the middle before the Exiles spread it wide and Armitage raced away to the line.

"We decided to go wide and I just put my foot down. A couple of the Doncaster boys were calling my name, hoping I'd pass them the ball, but at that point I don't think I was going to pass the ball to anyone. I just kept going and before I knew it the line was there.”

Armitage's crucial third try came with the Exiles down to 14-men, with Rob Lewis in the sin bin, and just moments after a Dougie Flockhart penalty had brought the home side to within two points.

"We had a lot of numbers on the left and I just hit a hard line. I had a couple of boys outside to distract the defenders, so that gave me half a chance, and I had a little opening,” he said.

Armitage had been set to go head-to-head with big brother Devon, who plays for Doncaster, but that match up will have to wait for another day, with Bevon named on the Newcastle Falcons bench for their Kings of the North clash with Sale Sharks this afternoon.

"He will firmly say that he would have stopped me. We were looking forward to it all season and my mum and dad have travelled up from Devon, but we've got them last game of the season so maybe we'll see each other then,” said Armitage.

Having been in control for the opening 25 minutes of their match at Doncaster, the visitors were stung by two tries in four minutes to turn the game on its head.

It was end-to-end action from there on in.

Welsh led by just two at the break, and at the death the Knights came within a missed Flockhart conversion of snatching a draw, as Welsh finished the game with 14-men.

"It was nuts; the crowd really got behind them and it put a lot of pressure on the boys. We regrouped and went through the basics and that's what got us the win,” said Armitage.

"When the yellow card came we really had to pull together and find something, because we could easily have let this win slip.

"We really put ourselves under a lot of pressure when we really didn't need to. We were in control but we got complacent, and Doncaster being the side they are came back into the game.

"The moment we let them have a sniff, they kept pushing, so it meant the game was tight all the way through. We had to pull together and just nail the basics because that's when we got back ahead.

"The win was the main thing because Welsh had a tough season last year. We really had to get that monkey off our back. Getting that win was crucial to moving forward.”