Rotherham Titans returned to winning ways with an impressive nine try to one victory over a willing Blaydon side on a cool afternoon at Clifton Lane, as they ran out 59-7 winners.
The victory sees Titans remain unbeaten in the league to maintain their title aspirations, as they now look towards next week’s tough away challenge at Fylde.
The match itself saw Titans dominate in most aspects as they scored five first half tries and another four in the second period.
Hooker Harry Newborn dotted down for Titans first after good work in the build up from Joe Carlisle and Matt Smith.
Roth’s second came after they pushed Blaydon off their own scrum inside the 22; scrum half Sam Boxhall was on hand to collect and he fed Zak Poole who in turn sent in winger Connor Field to score in the corner.
To be fair, Blaydon never stopped working and they always looked to play rugby whenever they had possession.
On 27 minutes they scored their only points of the game with a really nice try when fly half Jonny Dowell fed a pass back inside to Alex Charlton, the big second rower proceeded to gallop in from over 60 metres, as the Roth defence opened up.
Normal service was quickly resumed however, as just 4 minutes later Keifer Laxton crashed over for a try from a line out close to the line.
Titans fourth and fifth tries followed shortly afterwards as centre Lloyd Hayes exploited a gap in the Blaydon defence to cruise through and then Connor Field nipped in for his second in the corner as Lloyd Hayes and Matt Minogue combined to send him in.
The second half continued in the same manner and Titans next two tries followed quickly. This time Roth’s number 8 Callum Bustin scored a brace inside the opening 7 minutes.
His first was from close range after Zak Poole sent him in following turnover ball and the second saw him race in from 30 metres having collected a nice little pass from Theo Nwosu-Hope, before skilfully sidestepping the full back to dot down underneath the posts.
Titans’ penultimate try of the game came from Matti Williams; he raced in from 20 metres having received a pass from Matt Minogue. Williams still had work to do, but slick footwork and good strength enabled him to power over.
It was fitting that the final try of the game went to skipper Zak Poole; he rounded off an excellent personal and team performance, as he was on hand to finish off a cross-field move late on in the game.
Matt Minogue made a good contribution both in terms of playing at full back for the first time for a while and with the boot as he impressed with seven successful kicks at goal.
Titans will now prepare hard for what is sure to be a stiff challenge next time out away at third place Fylde.
Speaking on the pitch after the game Titans’ Adam Byron said:
“We are obviously very pleased and it’s nice to get nine tries on the board. It’s a difficult one because when you look at the table people may expect that kind of result, but that doesn’t just happen, the boys put a real shift in to make it happen.
“At times we had to put in some huge defensive sets, they literally ran it from everywhere and hats off to them for that approach, because they made us have to deal with something unexpected. We are used to teams tapping and going and playing quickly, but they literally ran it from everywhere.
“The boys stayed patient, we had to be organised and keep our width in defence whether that was on their five metre line or ours and the lads did that very well.
“Our work-ons this week were quite simple, we needed to make sure that we played our own game, played in the right areas and when we got into those areas to be clinical and that’s how it turned out.
“So we are where we want to be, we are still undefeated to this point and we go on the road next week knowing exactly what job needs to be done when we get to Fylde.”
Referee: Peter Connor
Attendance: 417
Yellow Card: Minogue (Titans)
Titans: Field (2T), Bustin (2T), Newborn (T), Laxton (T), Hayes (T), Williams (T), Poole (T), Minogue (7C)
Blaydon: Charlton (T), Dowell (1C)
Titans: 15 Matt Minogue, 14 Connor Field, 13 Lloyd Hayes (Taylor 55), 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall (West 47), 1 Charlie Capps (Quigley 59), 2 Harry Newborn (Bergmanas 47), 3 Colin Quigley (Donkor 40), 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Matt Smith (Newborn 56), 6 Zak Poole (Capt), 7 Keifer Laxton (Williams 40), 8 Callum Bustin (Laxton 55).
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Matti Williams, 19 Lewis Taylor, 20 Jonny West.
Blaydon: 15 Jack Appleton (Horsfall 40), 14 James Cooney, 13 Dan Marshall (Capt.) (Mongan 57), 12 Alex Clark, 11 Jonny Ashman, 10 Jonny Dowell, 9 John Clarkson, 1 Alex Dodds (Winter 47), 2 Danny Gray (Chaplin 63), 3 Drew Thompson, 4 Liam Wright, 5 Alex Charlton, 6 Will Varley, 7 Ethan Hall-Lyon, 8 Ethan Clarke (Harrison 40).
Replacements: 16 Owen Chaplin, 17 Matthew Winter, 18 Sweed Harrison, 19 Nathan Horsfall, 20 Hugh Mongan.
Photo Credit: Steve Mettam