Rotherham Titans began their pre-season campaign at the Abbeydale Sports Ground, where they secured a comfortable 61-0 victory over local club Sheffield.
The game was split into 3 sections where two 20 minutes periods sandwiched a 40 minute half.
Both sides utilised their squads to the full and the game provided both teams with some ideal preparation before the respective league campaigns start over the first weekend in September.
Sheffield made the Titans graft hard in the opening period and Rotherham were made to work hard on their defence as the National League 2 North side pressed with urgent intent.
However, the Titans defence was up to the task and with great resilience and tenacity they ensured the home side did not breach the whitewash. Equally, Titans opening efforts in attack were repelled as they tried unsuccessfully to put the phases together in their first run-out of the season. All of which meant the scores stayed at 0-0 after the first period.
That was as good as it got for the hosts.
The remaining hour of the contest saw Titans up the tempo and intensity of their game, which in turn resulted in them scoring nine tries through a combination of powerful forward play and quick and incisive work from their backline.
Scrum half Rhodri Davies and centre Luke Peters in particular caught the eye in the backs, whilst Luke Cole and Toby Williams put a shift in for the pack.
In charge of the Titans for the first time, new head coach Andy Key explained post-match, “I was delighted with how the game went, but it was more about how we created the tries, there was probably three or four that were very well executed. We had very clear objectives going into the game and I’m very pleased in the way the boys executed those objectives.
“I take my hat off to Sheffield and to be fair in the first 20 minutes, where it was 0-0, they put us under a little bit of pressure. I think it was more that we were a little bit fresh; it was our first outing and they got amongst us and they upset our rhythm.
“I think however, once we got into our stride and started to move the ball and increase the pace of our game, it then became a bit of a struggle for them to live with it. But massive credit to Sheffield, they didn’t stop putting in the work right up to the final whistle.
“Our defence was outstanding, not just our organisation and our ability to get into position and a lot of that comes through the due diligence that you have at the breakdown, but our hits as well.
“Our ability to make some of the hits and then look to turn the ball over was good; however, the slight negative within that is we made a lot of big hits, but we probably didn’t turn the ball over as many times as we wanted to.
“However, on the whole we can’t be too disappointed with the way we defended and to nil a side is always pleasing.”
Check out the match photos HERE
