Rotherham Titans continued their unbeaten start to the season with a hard-fought 37-22 win over a dogged and resilient Luctonians outfit on a bright afternoon at Clifton Lane.
Titans outscored their opponents by 5 tries to 3, with Callum Bustin going over for a brace and Fran Entressengle, Mat Clark and Matti Williams chipping in with a dot down each; Lloyd Hayes added 12 points from the tee.
Although not at their best, Rotherham still managed to come out on top against a side that played with plenty of spirit and lots of endeavour.
Indeed it was Roth who started the scoreboard ticking when as early as the third minute Callum Bustin crashed over from the tail of a powerful drive following a line-out close to the line. Lloyd Hayes impressively nailed the extras from out wide.
Luctonians are nearer the bottom of the table than they are top, but as always, league position is no barometer for how well a team can perform.
The North Herefordshire side demonstrated this to good effect just 7 minutes later when their man-mountain lock forward, Owien Harriott-Davis, showed great strength as he bulldozed his way over.
Back came Rotherham though and scored an almost carbon-copy try to their first, as hooker Fran Entressengle dotted down from the tail of the maul and from almost the identical spot on the field, Hayes again was successful with the conversion.
Luctonians scrum half Owen Randell squeezed in a penalty, before Roth added their third try just before half time.
This time it was outside centre, Mat Clark, who touched down following some good ball retention inside the oppositions 22, after Harry Dunne made a good half break to take play up close to the line. Clark then showed good strength under pressure to get the ball down.
Within the first 5 minutes of the second half Roth secured the bonus point try when Callum Bustin peeled off another maul to power over near the corner.
Again however Luctonians responded and they scored a nice try on 49 minutes when full back Tom Jones deftly chipped through for outside centre James Wheeler to nip in to score near the sticks. Randell knocked over the extras to reduce his side’s arrears to 24-15.
It was almost as though Titans needed Luctonians to score to give them the necessary spark to up their own game and this happened once again just 5 minutes later.
This time it was replacement back rower Matti Williams who dotted down following another powerful drive from a line-out. Hayes impressed with his conversion from out wide to extend Roth’s lead to 31-15.
Luctonians refused to roll over as they kept Titans honest in their endeavours and they perhaps deserved their bit of fortune for their third try after a kick-through deflected and bounced kindly for them; all of which enabled replacement front-rower Connor Deignan to collect and show good pace to race through and score. Randell added the extras.
Rotherham did however have the final say as they added two further penalties through Lloyd Hayes to sensibly close out the game.
Speaking on the pitch post-match Titans’ Steve Salvin said:
“A win is a win and today we got exactly that and picked up 5 points and maybe we need to put a bit of context on the result.
“In the last 2 weeks we have beaten Fylde and Hull Ionians and today we played a team, with all due respect, is possibly going to finish in the bottom half of the table.
“We then have Stourbridge and Hull to follow and they are teams that are expected to be possibly in the top four and so we gave the boys a massive amount of credit for winning over the last 2 weeks.
“However, in the first half particularly we were poor and we’ll need to raise those levels significantly going forwards and we’ll certainly need to raise them going into the Stourbridge game.
“From everything we have seen of Stourbridge, it seems they are a very good side; they’re unbeaten up to this point and we know it’s going to be very tough down there.
“Too many of us today didn’t get ourselves into the right frame of mind and although we have taken five points and that should always be celebrated, it feels disappointing because of our overall performance.
“But as I’ve said, let’s not lose context because the lads have done really well over the last couple of weeks. To go back-to-back against Fylde and Hull Ionians who are both top-four sides and to win and bag 9 points shows we are not a bad side, we’ve just had a bit of an off-day today.
“We now have to make sure we have a good week’s preparation so we’re in good shape to take on Stourbridge next week.”
Referee: Daniel Woods
Attendance: 594
Yellow Card: Kelly (Luctonians)
Titans: Bustin (2T), Entressengle (T), Clark (T), Williams (T), Hayes (3C, 2P)
Luctonians: Harriott-Davis (T), Wheeler (T), Deignan (T), Randell (2C, P)
Titans: 15 George Tucker, 14 Connor Field, 13 Mat Clark (Bustin 74), 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke (Drennan 66), 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Jonny West, 1 Charlie Capps (Donkor 45), 2 Fran Entressengle (Newborn 66), 3 Colin Quigley (Stout 40), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Zak Poole (Capt.), 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Callum Bustin (Williams 50).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Rikki Stout, 27 Matti Williams, 20 Matty Drennan.
Luctonians: 15 Tom Jones (Nott 52), 14 Frank Kelly, 13 James Wheeler, 12 Rob Aikman, 11 Charlie Grimes, 10 Lewis Parkes, 9 Owen Randell, 1 Ben Murphy (Deignan 57), 2 Ben Link, 3 Joe White (Kone 69), 4 Harry Whiteman, 5 Owien Harriott-Davis (S. Jones 77), 6 Jack Forsythe (Watkins 25), 7 Mat Hackley (Capt.), 8 Sam Jones (Cheshire 52).
Replacements: 20 Connor Deignan, 17 Zac Watkins, 16 Cheick Kone, 19 Aiden Cheshire, 21 Josh Nott.
Photo courtesy of Gareth Siddons