Rotherham Titans suffered back-to-back defeats as they went down 25-17 to Sedgley Park on a mild afternoon in the North West.
Titans and Sedgley shared six tries apiece with Roth’s dot downs coming from Gareth Denman, Matt Challinor and Jack Taylor.
Rotherham did have opportunities to win the game, as they did last week against Fylde, but unfortunately for them they just weren’t clinical enough at crucial times in the game.
Whilst there’s no disgrace in losing to the top two teams in the division, it does mean however there is very little ‘wiggle-room’ left for more reversals this term, that is if Titans are going to be involved at the sharp end come April.
The game itself saw Roth take the lead on 9 minutes when tighthead prop Gareth Denman dotted down from the tail of a powerful drive close to the line.
However, for most of the first half it was the home side that had much the better of things, as their forwards competed well and their backs looked sharp and energetic.
Park’s fly half Steve Collins reduced his side’s deficit on 16 minutes with a penalty, before hooker Adam Mallinson and winger Rhys Henderson crossed the whitewash a minute either side of the half-hour mark to race 15-5 ahead.
Rotherham had rarely been inside Sedgley’s 22 during the first period, but when they managed to get there just before the break they had success when following a brief period of forward pressure second rower Matt Challinor grabbed the ball to power over. Sam Veall’s conversion sent Roth in at the break trailing by just 3 points.
The South Yorkshire side came out for the second period with good energy and on 45 minutes were rewarded for that energy when centre Jack Taylor scored an outstanding individual try.
From turnover ball around 65 metres from the Sedgley line Taylor hacked-on down the right wing and then proceeded to show terrific pace and skill to outstrip the defence and nudge the ball over the line before dotting down. Veall missed the conversion to leave Roth 17-15 ahead.
Shortly after however Collins nosed his side back in front following a penalty from in front of the sticks. He was then instrumental seven minutes from time in effectively wrapping up the game when he broke smartly and offloaded to replacement front rower Alex Brooks to score under the posts.
For the second week running Rotherham will reflect on the “what could have been” moments in the game and moving forward will no doubt look to be more clinical when those moments arrive.
Speaking immediately after the game a disappointed Adam Byron said:
“We knew Sedgley Park was a good team and they know how to play the pitch and to be fair they played some really good rugby at times. However, we’re just frustrated because we felt like our effort and our desire to be involved in the game was good, but we just weren’t clinical enough or accurate enough in the right places.
“You can defend for five minutes, you can make double hits, you can be dominant in all the contacts, but if in the sixth minute you give a penalty away, then obviously the outcome isn’t what you want.
“I think we will improve, and the more time we spend together the better we will be. We are a young side; if you look at the average age of our backline, it was around 22 today and even younger when Harry Dunne went off and we were inexperienced in certain areas of the game, but that will come with time.
“The effort is there from the boys, the contact in defence and the desire to defend is there and that’s what you want; we questioned that slightly after last week, but today the boys came out fighting and you cannot question that desire and passion for being in the game today.”
Referee: Ben Wood
Attendance: 350
Yellow Card: Birtwell (Sedgley Park)
Titans: Denman (T), Challinor (T), Taylor (T), Veall (1C)
Sedgley Park: Mallinson (T), Henderson (T), Brooks (T), Collins (2C, 2P)
Titans: 15 Fraser Jones, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Jack Taylor (Ramrattan 70), 12 Harry Dunne (Ollivent 40), 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Sam Veall, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps (Denman 70), 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Gareth Denman (Rylance 40), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Zak Poole (Capt.), 6 Marcus Payne, 7 Rupert Kay (Nwosu-Hope 45), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Louis Inman, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 19 Corben Ollivent, 20 Kai Ramrattan.
Sedgley Park: 15 Andy Riley, 14 Rhys Henderson, 13 Ollie Glasse, 12 Matt Riley (Capt.), 11 Jacob Tansey, 10 Steve Collins, 9 Sam Stelmaszek, 1 John Blanchard (Nonleh 74), 2 Adam Mallinson (Chilvers 50), 3 Ben Black (Nonleh 32) (Brooks 60), 4 Bob Birtwell, 5 Connor James, 6 Mark Goodman, 7 Valu Tane Bentley (Crowe 63), 8 Tom Ailes.
Replacements: 16 Cash Chilvers, 17 Alex Brooks, 18 Beltus Nonleh, 19 Oscar Crowe, 20 Jake Maher.
