Rotherham Titans kicked-off their pre-season campaign with a well-deserved 40-7 victory over Shropshire based side Newport Salop.
Titans outscored Salop by 6 tries to 1 with Zak Poole bagging a brace, whilst there was one try each for Jack Bergmanas, Callum Bustin, Laurence Cowen-Leak and Rupert Kay. Lloyd Hayes knocked over 5 conversions for his 10-point tally.
The game was played out in three 25 minute periods with both sides performing well considering it was the first run-out of pre-season.
Newport finished 10th in National League 2 West last term following promotion to the National leagues and their aim is to make the top half of the table this time around.
The game itself saw Rotherham start brightly as they raced into a 14-0 lead just after 10 minutes with catch and drives being finished off by skipper Zak Poole and hooker Jack Bergmanas.
On 20 minutes Roth had their third try when Callum Bustin showed terrific pace and power as he collected a nice inside pass from scrum half Kareem Eissa; the converted back rower charged almost 50 metres to smash his way over next to the sticks.
The second period saw Salop come into the game a little more; culminating in a deserved try from hooker Kev Raqio as he picked up from the base of a ruck to barge his way over.
Rotherham soon hit back however with a further two tries in this period. Laurence Cowan-Leak went in for a powerful try following a spell of forward pressure on the line, before Poole popped up on the right wing to dart over in the corner for his second try of the game.
Remarkably there was only one score in the final period and it came in the last play of the match; but what a try it was!
Following turnover ball in the Titans 22 a counter-attack was mounted and after multiple phases and 11 passes Rupert Kay collected to dot down in the corner.
Lloyd Hayes nailed an excellent conversion from the touchline to make it 5 out of 6 successful kicks.
Next up for the Titans is a trip to the Channel Islands when they take on National League 2 East side Guernsey Raiders on Saturday.
