Rotherham Titans were made to graft hard for their 41-17 win over a bright and lively Durham University side on a warm evening at Clifton Lane.
Titans outscored their opponents by seven tries to three and brought their pre-season campaign to a conclusion with a perfect 3 wins from 3 games.
Now the focus will shift sharply to next week’s National 1 opener at home to Rosslyn Park.
Durham provided a stern test in this final run out with their energy and enthusiasm keeping the home side on their toes, particularly in a competitive first half which saw the sides share 6 tries and go in at the break level at 17-17.
Titans scores came from winger Tainne Finn who dotted down in the corner following a huge miss-pass from Max Green, fullback Jack Townend scored next after bursting through and racing in from 30 metres and Ellis Thomas powered over from the tail of a driving maul.
The second half, though still competitive, saw Rotherham get on top and go on to score a further four tries, whilst managing to deny Durham adding to their first half tally.
A brace of powerful tries from Callum Bustin extended the lead, before Tomasi Tanumi skipped over in the right-hand corner and late on John Okafor did the same in the opposite corner.
The victory although hard-fought was well deserved and the coaching staff got to see a number of players get some valuable game time.
Following the match Titans Matt Smith explained:
“Massive credit to Durham University, they turned up again and gave us a really hard game, as we knew they would.
“I thought there were periods in the game where we looked good, that was when we stuck to process and we were all on the same page and that meant we scored in little flurries.
“But there were other times in the game where we were very frustrating, we were playing in the wrong areas and people were going off-script.
“Although we put 40-points on a team I think we all came away a little bit frustrated and that’s because we know there was so much more we could have done in the game, especially as we were so dominant up front.”
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tainne Finn, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Corben Ollivent, 11 Will Wood, 10 Charlie Metcalf, 9 Max Green, 1 Zach Toerien, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Alastair Donkor, 4 Harry Gilson-Fox, 5 Callum Russell, 6 Ellis Thomas, 7 Ben Copley, 8 Travis Gordon (Capt.).
Replacements: Loma Kivalu, Luke Cole, Andrew Foster, Lewis Allan, Curran Maguire, Zak Poole, John Okafor, Harry Newborn, Callum Bustin, James Naylor, JB Bruzulier, Rob Povey, Joe Mounsey, Lloyd Hayes, Travis Gideon, Ronnie Du Randt.
Referee: Owen Taylor
Assistant Referees: Ian Farrell & Jason Garrick
