Rotherham Titans endured a blood and thunder battle before eventually outmuscling a physical Bishop’s Stortford side 17-11 on a wet and grey afternoon at Silver Leys.
Titans outscored the hosts by two tries to one with a penalty try and a Lloyd Hayes dot down, with the latter also adding 5 points from the tee.
The hard-fought win sees Rotherham go into second spot in the table, 2 points behind Richmond, following Rams defeat to Birmingham Moseley.
This brutal clash took its toll in terms of injuries for Rotherham, as both hookers, Jack Bergmanas and Luke Cole and back rower John Okafor all left the field with worrying hand injuries.
The game itself was expected to be a challenging one, with Bishop’s having already beaten Titans earlier in the season at Clifton Lane and that’s exactly how it turned out.
The home side enjoyed the better moments of the first half, although it must be said with a little help from the visitors.
However, Stortford took the lead inside the opening 10 minutes when fly half Mike Cooke successfully nailed a penalty from distance and indeed, he could have doubled his sides advantage 15 minutes later, but surprisingly this time failed with his effort.
Nevertheless, the home side did extend their lead a minute later when centre Austin Pope wriggled over for an unconverted try, following a brief period of pressure inside the Titans 22.
Trailing 8-0 Rotherham remained calm and didn’t press the panic button.
Six minutes before the break they manoeuvred play downfield before eventually crashing over to score from a driving maul through Callum Bustin. However, before the number 8 could celebrate, referee Matt Sharpe upgraded the score to a penalty try.
Only desperate defending from Rotherham on their own line ensured they would go in at half time trailing by a solitary point at 8-7.
The second half saw the South Yorkshire side pick up the intensity and their pack started to gain the upper hand, particularly at scrum time.
However, the next score for Rotherham came from their backs, when a neat chip over the top from JB Bruzulier was chased and finished off by Lloyd Hayes, who then dried himself off before knocking over the conversion.
Before the hour mark Hayes nailed a long-range penalty to crucially extend Titans lead beyond a score.
Both sides from here on in continued to batter the other, as each looked to get the edge, but the only points scored came for the hosts in the final play when Cooke knocked over a 3-pointer to deservedly secure a losing bonus point.
The win was a huge one for Rotherham they’ll now try and rest some bruised bodies before going again next week when they travel to Esher for a rearranged fixture.
Commenting afterwards Harvey Biljon said:
“I think we set the tone back at training on Tuesday and Thursday around what was going to happen when we came to Bishop’s Stortford.
“Bishop’s are a team if we’re honest that are running high with confidence after just beating Rams and today with the conditions as they were, it was always going to come down to a bit of character and one or two moments in the game.
“But, for us to come through with a win away from home, with the amount of adversity we faced today is exceptional.
“We lost both our hookers, we lost line-out personnel, we lost key decision makers during the game, and I think 4 players were playing out of position at the end and we were down to 14.
“The players just stuck in with heart; sometimes you’ve got a plan in place and all those kinds of things, but I think the plan went out of the window and Rotherham Titans just showed absolute character!”
Titans: Penalty try, Hayes (T, C, P)
Bishop’s Stortford: Pope (T), Cooke 2P)
Yellow Card: Poole (Titans), Hill & Brownhill (Bishop’s)
Attendance: 535
Referee: Matt Sharpe
Assistant Referees: Steven Randall & Ben McNamara
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Calum Barrett, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 JB Bruzulier (Naylor 61), 1 Charlie Capps ©, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Cole 17) (Newborn 57), 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Zak Poole ©, 5 Harry Maguire, 6 John Okafor (Toerien 74), 7 Ellis Thomas, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Rikki Stout, 25 Harry Newborn, 21 James Naylor.
Bishop’s Stortford: 15 David Hayes, 14 Josh Stannard (Biard 54), 13 Tom Mills, 12 Austin Pope, 11 Alex Gilham (Hill 78), 10 Mike Cooke, 9 Chris Bolton (Briers 58), 1 Tristan Smith (Brownhill 57), 2 Isaac Bell (Rayment 49), 3 Toby Hill (Smith 75), 4 Hamish Ferguson, 5 Fraizer Kiff, 6 Harrison Langworthy, 7 Ollie Jones (Johnson 57), 8 Will Rogers (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Alex Rayment, 17 Seb Brownhill, 18 Sam Johnson, 19 Charlie Briers, 20 Jack Biard.
