Rotherham Titans put in a big effort before unfortunately going down 38-20 to league leaders Sedgley Park on a blustery afternoon at Clifton Lane.
Titans scored two tries through Connor Dever and Luckas Sableman-Blue, with Lloyd Hayes adding 10 points from the tea.
To be fair the better team on the day won the game and they will likely go on to win the division and ply their trade in National 1 next season, but the scoreline slightly flattered the North West outfit.
Indeed Rotherham, with the elements in their favour in the first half, were the better side and took a deserved 13-5 lead in at the break.
Titans’ scrum half Connor Dever got the scoreboard ticking over as early as the fifth minute when he sniped over from close to the line following a period of forward pressure. Lloyd Hayes impressed in the difficult conditions with the conversion.
Connor James soon replied for the visitors down the left hand side to score in the corner, but fly half Steve Collins wasn’t able to add the extras.
Roth continued to have good periods throughout, but unfortunately for them they were unable to penetrate the whitewash, in no small part, this was due to some outstanding defensive sets from Park.
Nevertheless Roth did add to their tally with two nicely taken penalties from Lloyd Hayes.
Just before the break Sedgley Park back rower Connor James suffered a nasty lower leg injury which brought the half to a premature conclusion.
Fortunately Rotherham has an excellent medical department and Doctor Chris Myers and head physio David Swift were quickly on hand to assist Connor within seconds. All at Clifton Lane wish Connor a speedy recovery.
At the beginning of the second half there was some controversy when Rhys Henderson was deemed to have scored a try, which some suggested close to the play was indeed beyond the dead ball line.
Nevertheless, credit has to go to Henderson for his tenacious chase which led to the game-changing moment.
Rotherham appeared to be shaken by the outcome and Sedgley took heart and within 15 minutes they added another try from full back Andy Riley and two penalties from Collins to stretch their lead to 23-13.
Titans however never stopped putting in a shift and hopes of a fightback were raised when just after the hour mark winger Luckas Sableman-Blue dotted down in the corner following quick hands along the backline. Hayes mightily impressed from out wide with his conversion to reduce Titans arrears to 23-20.
Sedgley however are top of the league for a reason and before the end they scored two more tries through Dan Mayer and Rhys Henderson, with Collins adding a third penalty to round things off.
Park seemed to have improved a lot from earlier in the season and it’s difficult to see them not lifting the divisional honours this term.
Rotherham will now regroup and prepare for next week’s Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield at Lockwood Park.
Speaking afterwards Titans head coach, Gary Pearce, said:
“I think we are still a bit too naive about where we play the game; when you’ve got a day like today where the wind is so strong, you can’t play all your rugby on the halfway line. They gave us a lesson in the second half in how to play in those conditions and they made very few errors.
“The game changer was the try which was given at the start of the second half. I couldn’t see from where I was on halfway, but the people down at that end said it was over the dead ball line. If it was then that’s obviously very disappointing.
“It’s moments like that which can change the momentum of games and I think that happened today. However, what we can’t question is the lad’s effort and commitment.
“We know we’re a long way from being a top of the table side at this point and we have to give Sedgley a lot of credit. They are a good side and now they are 18 and 0 for the season. They are disciplined, well organised and well drilled and they have a lot of good players that have been together a long time.
“But we are still very disappointed because we thought we would really be in with a chance and we were for long periods; but crucially you have to put points on the board when you have your moments and we didn’t do that enough times today.”
Referee: Ben Rayner
Attendance: 250
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Dever (T), Sableman-Blue (T), Hayes (2C, 2P)
Sedgley Park: Henderson (2T), James (T), A. Riley (T), Mayer (T), Collins (2C, 3P)
Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Jack Taylor (Carlisle 51), 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Callum Bustin, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Connor Dever (Boxhall 45), 1 Charlie Capps (Rylance 74), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Richardson 77), 3 Gareth Denman (Rylance 30) (Denman 53), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Marcus Payne (Allan 65), 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Tom Richardson, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Lewis Allan, 19 Joe Carlisle, 20 Sam Boxhall.
Sedgley Park: 15 Andy Riley, 14 Rhys Henderson, 13 Oliver Glasse, 12 Matt Riley (Capt.), 11 Jamie Harrison, 10 Steve Collins, 9 Jacob Tansey (Bedlow 16), 1 John Blanchard, 2 Dan Mayer (Mallinson 74), 3 Beltus Nonleh (Black 35) (Nonleh 62), 4 Bob Birtwell, 5 Oscar Crowe (Chilvers 74), 6 Connor James (Bentley 37), 7 Mark Goodman, 8 Tom Ailes.
Replacements: 16 Cash Chilvers, 17 Adam Mallinson, 18 Ben Black, 19 Valu Tane Bentley, 20 Joe Bedlow.
