Rotherham Titans impressed hugely with a stunning performance to beat Dings Crusaders 45-19 on a balmy autumn afternoon at Clifton Lane.
The bonus point victory, Titans fourth in five games, was their best effort of the season and sees them rise into third place in the National 1 table behind big hitters Rams and Richmond.
Rotherham outscored the Crusaders by 5 tries to 3 with John Okafor grabbing a hat trick and Callum Bustin and Loma Kivalu chipping in with one each. Lloyd Hayes continued his impressive form off the tee by adding a further 20 points.
However, it was Dings who started the brighter and they deservedly took the lead inside the opening quarter when a powerful drive from their pack was finished off by hooker Tomos Gwilliam.
It would be fair to say at this stage there were worrying moments for Rotherham to contend with, as Dings pace made them look threatening every time they had the ball.
However, those moments quickly passed as Titans back rower John Okafor grabbed a headline-hitting hat trick.
His first try saw him pick up from the base and charged in from 20 metres to dot down, his second effort a touch less spectacular saw him collect the ball close to the line from JB Bruzulier to crash over and his third saw him carve through the Dings defence to race in for a spectacular score.
Titans had an opportunity to claim the bonus point on the stroke of half time, but a fumbled line out saw the opportunity pass.
Nevertheless, soon into the second half the bonus point was indeed collected when number 8 Callum Bustin, ably assisted by Andrew Foster powered over following a line out.
Hayes extended the home sides advantage shortly after with a penalty before on the hour mark Dings winger Deago Bailey mightily impressed with an individual score under the sticks.
Any jitters the Dings try may have initiated were soon snuffed out, as Rotherham effectively wrapped up the game when prop forward Loma Kivalu finished off a tremendously powerful maul 15 minutes from time.
Two further penalties were added by Hayes to stretch the Titans lead to 45-14, before in the final play of the game, in the sixth minute of injury time, Dings winger Sol Taufa went over in the corner.
Rotherham will have been hugely pleased with their efforts against a very good Dings outfit, but as is such, the focus will quickly switch to next week’s away game at Leicester Lions.
Commenting after the game Titans Harvey Biljon said:
“I think the whole week the players recognised the threat of Dings Crusaders and I have to commend our players for stepping up, especially from a control and concentration point.
“How they controlled when we had the ball and the concentration because of the number of threats that there were in that Dings team, across their front row all the way out to their back three.
“I was really pleased we kept them to three tries, I would have liked it to be two, but you can’t have everything.
“We were composed when we needed to be; we took the 5 points when they were on offer and we took the three points when they were too. We had a really good balance today.”
Titans: Okafor (3T), Bustin (T), Kivalu (T), Hayes (4C, 4P)
Dings Crusaders: Gwilliam (T), Bailey (T), Taufa (T), Knight (1C), Edwards (1C)
Yellow Card: Foot (Dings)
Attendance: 250
Referee: Ben Rayner
Assistant Referees: Jason Garrick & Simon Williams
Titans: 15 Ronnie Du Randt, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Travis Gideon, 10 Corben Ollivent, 9 JB Bruzulier (Naylor 70), 1 Charlie Capps (C-C) (Kivalu 58), 2 Luke Cole (Bergmanas 48), 3 Alastair Donkor (Foster 33) (Donkor 77), 4 Zak Poole (C-C), 5 Curran Maguire, 6 John Okafor (Cowen-Leak 58), 25 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Andrew Foster, 7 Laurence Cowen-Leak, 21 James Naylor.
Dings Crusaders: 15 Tom Foot, 14 Deago Bailey, 13 Harry Rowson, 12 Harry Tarling, 11 Sol Taufa, 10 George Boulton (Capt.) (Smith 54), 9 Tom Knight (Edwards 45), 1 Louie Trevett, 2 Tomos Gwilliam (Gollop 57), 3 Jimmy Halliwell (Ncube 46), 4 Olly Bilton, 5 Will Thompson (Alex Bilton 57), 6 Matt Lane, 7 Aaron Tull, 8 Harry Horne.
Replacements: 19 Tom Gollop, 18 Brian Ncube, 17 Alex Bilton, 21 Sam Edwards, 22 Ollie Smith.
