Rotherham Titans slow start to the game ultimately cost them dearly as they went down 45-34 to a lively Bishop’s Stortford outfit on a mild afternoon at Clifton Lane.
The entertaining contest saw 11 tries scored with the visitors edging the dot downs by 6 tries to 5. Rotherham’s scores came via a brace from JB Bruzulier with one each for Jamie Cooke, Tomasi Tanumi and Harry Newborn. Lloyd Hayes added 9 points from the tee.
Ironically the key to Stortford’s success was in no small part their defence!
Despite conceding 5 tries Bishop’s defensive display was one of the best seen at Clifton Lane for many years.
Rotherham were virtually camped inside the visitors 22 for the majority of the second half and despite having three players sent to the bin for repeatedly offending, Bishop’s still managed to hold out for win and full credit to them for that.
Rotherham will look back at this one and recognise the game was virtually gone inside the opening 30 minutes after Bishop’s scored 5 tries!
Titans did get on the board in the first half with a Jamie Cooke try and a penalty from Lloyd Hayes, but when you go in at the break against a good team trailing 35-8, it’s always going to be difficult thereafter.
Rotherham did respond superbly in the second period and ultimately won the half 26-10, scoring a further 4 tries and collected the bonus point.
But Bishop’s were very smart in how they handled being down to 13 players and cleverly took lots of time out of the game to frustrate Rotherham.
Reflecting after the game Harvey Biljon said:
“It was the classic “game of two halves” and although there’s some who want to talk about the positives and about winning the second half 26-10, but for us if we’re honest, we gave a team that we knew were coming here motivated opportunities and they took those opportunities.
“Although we responded it was too little too late. Our kick execution wasn’t on point, our kick chase wasn’t where it normally is and we’ve thrown the ball to them on a few occasions and then when you give up two cheap scores in the first half and one in the second half, you’re always going to be involved in a losing battle.
“Hopefully we can go away and we can pick those moments, learn from them, learn from a team that came here really motivated and recognised that we have to make sure we stay who we are, we go to Tuesday and we go to Thursday and nothing changes.
“We’ve lost a game of rugby, but importantly we got another point and now we get back into training and build from there.
Titans: Bruzulier (2T), Cooke (T), Tanumi (T), Newborn (T), Hayes (3C, 1P)
Bishop’s Stortford: Rogers (2T), Bolton (T), Biard (T), Mills (T, 1C), Penalty Try, Cooke (4C, 1P)
Yellow Card: Povey & Kivalu (Titans), Ferguson, Smith & Charter (Bishop’s)
Attendance: 250
Referee: Owen Taylor
Assistant Referees: Adam Carpenter & Kieron Henry
Titans: 15 Ronnie Du Randt, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Tomasi Tanumi (Capps 77), 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Naylor 76), 1 Charlie Capps (c) (Kivalu 47), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Cole 56), 3 Andrew Foster (Donkor71), 4 Zak Poole (c), 5 Curran Maguire, 6 John Okafor (Tanumi 80), 7 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin (Copley 44).
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Ben Copley, 20 James Naylor.
Bishop’s Stortford: 15 David Hayes, 14 Tom Mills, 13 Jack Biard, 12 Austin Pope, 11 Alex Gilham, 10 Mike Cooke, 9 Chris Bolton (Briers 64), 1 Tristan Smith, 2 Alex Rayment (Moffitt 29), 3 Toby Hill (Cilia 40) (Johnson 74), 4 Hamish Ferguson (Charter 71), 5 Fraizer Kiff, 6 Harrison Langworthy, 7 Ollie Jones, 8 Will Rogers (Capt.) (Hill 64).
Replacements: 16 Ollie Moffitt, 17 Josh Cilia, 18 Harry Charter, 19 Sam Johnson, 20 Charlie Briers.
Photo: Gareth Siddons