Rotherham Titans were made to graft hard for their 26-21 victory over a very resilient Chester side on a cool afternoon at Clifton Lane.
Both sides scored 2 tries apiece, with Roth’s two coming from prop Danny Rylance and winger Ollie Parker on debut. Lloyd Hayes added 16 points from the tee to give the South Yorkshire side a deserved and much-needed win.
On paper going into the game it looked like the teams were evenly matched and a close game was on the cards; and that’s just how it turned out, with the result not settled until referee Dave Charlton blew his final whistle.
Roth started brightly and got the scoreboard moving on 4 minutes when Lloyd Hayes slotted over a 3-pointer.
However, Chester soon bounced back on 7 minutes and following a powerful drive down the right hand side the ball was spread quickly across the field, before centre James Hampson sent in prop forward Tom Furnival in the left hand corner. Liam Reeve nailed a superb conversion from the touchline.
Chester continued to have the better of things as their pack at this stage matched the Titans and their backs looked lively and dangerous when in possession; and when Liam Reeve extended their advantage on 22 minutes with a penalty, it was no more than the visitors deserved.
Rotherham however showed lots of heart and commitment and just before the half hour mark they were rewarded for their endeavours when prop Danny Rylance crashed over from the tail of a maul. Hayes impressed with his conversion from out wide to level the scores at 10 apiece.
Rotherham were now in the ascendancy and enjoying passages of play which could have resulted in further tries as they got close to the line on several occasions. However, Chester defended manfully and the teams went in at the break all square.
This time it was Chester who started the half brighter and inside 10 minutes Liam Reeve tagged over two further penalties to make it 16-10 to the visitors.
Lloyd Hayes narrowed the deficit shortly after with his own 3-pointer before Roth took the lead for the first time since the 7th minute when on debut, winger Ollie Parker raced down the left wing to score in the corner, following a nice short pass from Jack Taylor which drew the defender.
With just over 10 minutes remaining Hayes extended Roth’s advantage to 7 points with a penalty, but again Chester bounced back when they scored a second try through George Baxter, following a series of pick and goes on the Titans line. Surprisingly Reeve missed the extras to leave his side trailing by 2 points.
Five minutes from time Hayes slotted his fourth penalty of the match and Rotherham managed the game out well to see them secure an important win.
Speaking afterwards on the pitch forwards coach Matt Smith said:
“The most important thing for us today on the back of a couple of losses was simply to get the win. Everyone knows nothing beats getting the win.
“We had to work hard for it, we had a couple of opportunities that went begging, but that can happen when a team is struggling with confidence. That win will help to give the lads belief and hopefully going forward we can build on that.
“You will always give away some penalties in a game, but I don’t think we had too many silly ones and I thought our discipline was a lot better too.
“Once again it’s a work in progress and we saw lots of good things out there from the lads and that’s what we’re going to focus on and build on.
“We know we beat a good team in Chester, but as I’ve said before, I really don’t think there’s a bad team in the league and on any given day anyone can beat anyone.
“It was nice to be at home in front of our own supporters, who follow us all over the country, to give them the win, because it’s as big for them as it is for the squad.”
Referee: Dave Charlton
Attendance: 250
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Rylance (T), Parker (T), Hayes (4P, 2C)
Chester: Furnival (T), Baxter (T), Reeve (3P, 1C)
Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Fraser Jones, 13 Jack Taylor (Ollivent 59), 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Ollie Parker, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Kai Ramrattan (Boxhall 40), 1 Charlie Capps (Denman 30) (Capps 52), 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Danny Rylance, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Marcus Payne (Inman 70), 7 Rupert Kay (Nwosu-Hope 46), 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Louis Inman, 17 Gareth Denman, 18 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 19 Corben Ollivent, 20 Sam Boxhall.
Chester: 15 Sean Green, 14 Iwan Phillips, 13 James Hampson, 12 Jorge Lewtas, 11 Harrison Vare, 10 Liam Reeve, 9 Tom Holloway (Wynn 50), 1 Josh Woods (Croft 60), 2 Scott Robson (Williams 60), 3 Tom Furnival, 4 Mike Byrne (Baxter 59), 5 Jonny Charmley, 6 Harry Wilkinson (Capt.), 7 Kyle Joseph, 8 Luke Cox.
Replacements: 18 Wade Williams, 17 Alick Croft, 20 George Baxter, 21 Sean Callander, 22 Oliver Wynn.
