Rotherham Titans were made to work exceptionally hard for their 22-19 win over BUCS side Durham University on a warm evening under the lights at Clifton Lane.
The hard-fought victory was fully deserved and it served to complete Roth’s pre-season preparations ahead of the visit of Billingham next Saturday for the start of the National 2 North season.
Titans outscored Durham by 4 tries to 3, with a brace coming for Luke Cole and one each for JB Bruzulier and Charlie Capps; Lloyd Hayes added a conversion.
Full credit must be given to Durham who threatened continuously throughout the game and as expected looked bright and lively as they attacked Roth whenever the opportunity arose.
It wasn’t the Titans finest performance to be fair; the South Yorkshire outfit gave away far too many penalties and too often made mistakes at crucial times in promising positions.
However, what was commendable was the spirit they displayed to find a way to get the win and hopefully that same spirit will give them great optimism for the new campaign ahead.
Two Luke Cole catch and drive tries cancelled out dot downs from Toby Tyson and Jake Spurway for the visitors, as the sides went in at the break level at 12-apiece.
Durham skipper Pat Bishop gave the Uni outfit the lead again just 7 minutes into the second half as he converted his own try; all of which kept the pressure on the home side.
Replacement scrum half JB Bruzulier narrowed the Titans deficit with an unconverted try five minutes later and on the hour mark loosehead prop Charlie Capps nosed his side ahead to make it 22-19.
But rather than kicking on Roth struggled to break the shackles of the north east side, but to be fair the visitors never really had an opportunity to take home the spoils.
So Rotherham ended their pre-season run with a perfect 3 wins from 3 and now their focus will be fully tuned in for the visit of Billingham on Saturday.
