Titans 23 Loughborough Students 29

Rotherham Titans suffered a disappointing 29-23 home defeat to bottom placed side Loughborough Students.

A penalty try, a Harry Dunne try and 11 points from the tee from Alex Dolly managed to salve a bonus point for the South Yorkshire side.

However, that was little consolation for a team who have grand ambitions in National 1 and who for the second week in succession will look inwards at why they didn’t come away with a victory over a bottom-end placed side in the division.

The first 30 minutes went according to plan for Rotherham; an early penalty from Alex Dolly and a penalty try from a pack which demonstrated great dominance at the set scrum saw the hosts comfortably race into a 10-0 lead.

However, not for the first time recently Titans were unable to convert their pressure into points and when 6 minutes before the break Loughborough’s full back Tim Bitirim charged through to score with little interference, the alarm bells started to ring.

Deep into first half injury time Dolly added a second penalty, but within a minute of the restart Titans yet again offered little resistance as Bitirim went over in the corner for his second try. The conversion from Charlie Reed was added to give the visitors a surprise 14-13 lead.

Dolly and Reed then traded penalties before on the hour mark Harry Dunne finished off a good Titans move which saw the centre go over for his seventh try of the season. Dolly’s extras gave the hosts a 6 point lead and a base from which to kick on and seal the game.

However, that wasn’t to be as two tries from the visitors inside the final 6 minutes from Bitirim and replacement prop Ben Christie meant Rotherham had to settle for an unsatisfactory losing bonus point.

Speaking afterwards a disappointed Joe Barker explained, “That was not good enough and that’s not Rotherham. We were very patchy and although we were good at times, we weren’t good enough for long enough and we were inconsistent.

“I would also say in the four games since Christmas we haven’t performed well. Some of our lads have got to have a look at themselves off the pitch so we can perform on the pitch, because it’s not been good enough as a squad.

“It always hurts when you lose, but this one hurts so much more because we were poor. We can no longer use the excuse of being a new squad and we can’t have any excuses for this one.

“Certain individuals didn’t get their jobs right; as a team once we got into our defensive sets we were completely fine, but at times some individuals just switched off and that isn’t good enough.

“At 10-0 up we should have finished the game off but we didn’t and we paid for that. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement; we’ve let ourselves down and we’ve let the club down today.”

Referee: John Meredith

Attendance: 582

Yellow Card: Boye (Loughborough)

Titans: Pen Try, Dunne (T), Dolly (3P, C)

Loughborough Students: Bitirim (3T), Christie (T), Reed (P, 3C)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne (Dever 62), 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Dan Richardson (Williams 62), 2 Ali Thomson, 3 Rikki Stout (47), 4 Luis Ball, 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Tom Cotterill (Preston-Routledge 70), 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Jessie Williams, 18 Will Dennis, 19 Dan Preston-Routledge, 20 Connor Dever.

Loughborough Students: 15 Tim Bitirim, 14 Will Attfield, 13 Alex Glashan (Capt.), 12 Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas, 11 Will Brown, 10 Charlie Reed, 9 Jack Moates (Watson 60), 1 Keston Lines (Christie 50), 2 Harry Newborn (Adams 50), 3 Andrew Boye (Lines 65), 4 Cameron Boon, 5 Sam Bailey, 6 Thibaud Flament, 7 Musa Yusuff, 8 Ogwenesuvwe Obano (Van Der Ploeg 34).

Replacements: 16 Oliver Adams, 17 Ben Christie, 18 Adrian Van Der Ploeg, 19 Callum Watson, 20 Matt Edwards.

Sale FC 13 Titans 12

Rotherham Titans endured a bad day at the office as they crashed to a disappointing 13-12 defeat away to Sale FC.

Titans crossed the whitewash twice through Kieran Frost and Henry Roberts, with Ellis Abrahams adding a conversion to collect a losing bonus point.

Missing 11 points from the tee didn’t help the Titans cause and they will now look to bounce back against Loughborough Student at Clifton Lane on Saturday.

Titans have had their fair share of closing out tight games in their favour and have enjoyed the huge satisfaction that comes with those outcomes.

This time against Sale they couldn’t do that and instead they left Heywood Road with the bitter taste of regret and to make matters worse for Titans it was a game they should have won comfortably.

Titans started much the brighter, but despite this had to wait until the 22nd minute to take the lead through lock forward Kieran Frost, who barged his way over following some good forward pressure from his pack mates. Ellis Abrahams converted to make it 7-0.

Sale showed lots of endeavour but found it difficult to penetrate the Rotherham line; this was until the 34th minute when bulky prop forward used his physical advantages to dot down from the tail of a maul. Scrum half Matt Bradley missed the extras.

Despite Titans having much the better of territory and possession during the first period, to go in at the break leading by only 2 points would have been disappointing for them.

However, they would have been delighted when winger Henry Roberts danced his way through the Sale defence just 4 minutes into the second half for a fine individual try. Crucially the conversion was missed from out wide.

On 53 minutes a poor kick-chase by Rotherham saw the home side move the ball quickly across the field for winger Anthony Bingham to touch down in the corner. Bradley missed the conversion to leave Titans 12-10 to the good.

As the game moved into the final quarter Titans appeared to lose their way somewhat and the all-round advantages they’d enjoyed earlier seemed to be decreasing.

However, when they were awarded a penalty on 62 minutes they had an opportunity to take their lead to 4 points; unfortunately for the South Yorkshire side the opportunity was missed.

As the game entered the final 10 minutes and with a feeling of inevitability about it, the home side were awarded a penalty which Bradley knocked through the sticks to edge his side 13-12 ahead.

The remainder of the contest saw Rotherham throw everything they had at Sale, but credit to the home side as they managed to withstand the huge pressure that came their way to hold out for a crucial victory.

Post match a disappointed Joe Barker explained, “We should have controlled the game better than we did and we probably should have been a lot further ahead at half time. We scored first in the second half with a good try and we should have kicked on from there, but instead of doing that we let them back into the game.

“Overall our performance just wasn’t good enough today; we weren’t ruthless enough to finish it off and we were slack in the small areas and although we were good in other aspects of the game, the small detail killed us today.

“Credit to Sale they finished the game off and they came back at us and scored a good try to be fair, but that came about from our poor kick-chase and it is disappointing because these lads have got it in them but they’ve got to be there mentally on the day and they’ve got to stay in it for 80 minutes.

“You have to be constantly on it and you have to make sure you’re doing the small things every bit as much as the bigger things and if everyone was doing that today we would have got the result, but that wasn’t the case and that’s the disappointing thing.”

Referee: Nick Wood

Attendance: 632

Yellow Card: Ball (Titans)

Titans: Frost (T), Roberts (T), Abrahams (1C)

Sale FC: Kelly (T), Bingham (T), Bradley (1P)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Ellis Abrahams (Dunne 55), 11 Henry Roberts, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever (Dolly 47), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 55), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 53), 4 Luis Ball, 5 Kieran Frost (Keys 40), 6 Tom Cotterill, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Conor Keys, 19 Harry Dunne, 20 Alex Dolly.

Sale FC: 15 Jonty Rawcliffe, 14 Elliot Hodgson (Owen 70), 13 Jack Moorhouse, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 Anthony Bingham (Hodgson 77), 10 Matt Sturgess, 9 Matt Bradley, 1 Dan Birchall, 2 Neil Briggs (Taylor 47), 3 Joe Kelly (Aigbokhae 47), 4 Will Davies (Priestley-Nangle 67), 5 Matt Postlethwaite, 6 Andy Hughes (Capt.), 7 David Seymour, 8 Ryan Parkinson (Ailes 67).

Replacements: 16 Adam Aigbokhae, 17 Christian Taylor, 18 Stone Priestley-Nangle, 19 Tom Ailes, 20 Chris Owen.

Titans 21 Birmingham Moseley 20

Rotherham Titans showed tremendous character to snatch a dramatic 21-20 victory over Birmingham Moseley in the 94th minute with a converted try in the final play of the game.

When Moseley hooker Ryan Roach scored his hat trick driving maul try with 3 minutes remaining, to put his side 20-14 ahead, it looked a long way back for the Titans.

However, this young Titans squad showed incredible desire, character and determination to battle right to the end and their efforts were rewarded when flanker Zak Poole barged his way over following a period of enormous pressure close to the line.

Ellis Abrahams then kept his cool to slot over the conversion to send the Titans faithful into raptures.

No one would have expected so a tight, dramatic finish to a game in which the Titans started so brightly and in control. They pinged out of the box from the off and scored their first try on 4 minutes.

Good line speed by the South Yorkshire side forced Moseley into a handling error which Seb Nagle-Taylor pounced on and proceeded to gallop in from 40 metres to score under the sticks. Ellis Abrahams added the extras for a perfect start.

Rotherham continued to go about their work with lots of energy and intensity and on several occasions manoeuvred themselves into great scoring positions. Unfortunately for them a combination of poor decision making and execution combined with a tenacious opposition defence meant they were unable to breach the try line.

When Titans lost at Moseley earlier in the season, they conceded 4 tries, all of which came from the driving maul and all of which were scored by the hooker Adam Caves.

In this game Moseley were to score 3 tries and again all would come via the driving maul and again all would be scored by the hooker; only this time the hooker was Ryan Roach.   

If you have a particular strength why wouldn’t you use it? And so on 20 minutes the visitors levelled matters with their first, which centre James Williams converted.

Despite each side’s best endeavours no more points were added in the first 40 and the teams went in at the break at 7 each.

Rotherham had enjoyed the better of things during the first half but in the opening period of the second half Moseley worked themselves back into the game; this culminated with their second maul try on the hour mark – Williams missed the conversion.

However, within 5 minutes Titans bounced back with a brilliant training ground move which saw Moseley duped and scrum half Connor Dever dance his way through to score under the posts. Abrahams converted to nose Rotherham 14-12 ahead.

Frustrating for the home side they conceded a penalty almost from the restart and their lead lasted for under 2 minutes as National 1’s leading points scorer James Williams added the 3-pointer to give his side a 15-14 lead.

The contest descended into a fragmented stop-start affair which made it difficult for either side to play much rugby. However, as the clock ticked down Moseley appeared to seal victory, when Ryan Roach dived over for his third maul try. Crucially for Rotherham however, Williams narrowly missed the conversion.

In a massively tense finish which saw 14 minutes of added time, this was mainly due to Moseley relentlessly giving away penalties and which also saw lock Lewis Bean yellow carded for his part, Titans eventually bundled their way over through flanker Zak Poole, ably assisted by Luis Ball.

You could have heard a pin drop as Ellis Abrahams teed up the conversion and when the inside centre calmly struck his effort through the sticks the Titans faithful inside the ground went wild with delight.

Commenting post-match a relieved Joe Barker explained, “It was a very close match; one I think the team who played the better rugby came out on top. I think at times they managed the game situation better than us as they slowed it down to a pace they were comfortable to play at.

“They were strong in the set piece and they were strong up front like we knew they would be; but they slowed the game right down and we struggled to handle that at times. So to come back like we did was very pleasing.

“We said under the sticks after their third try that we needed to charge down the conversion, because we knew we go and win the game by 1 point. That was the belie3f of the boys even at that stage and I’m so proud of the lads for achieving that.

“It wasn’t the best of games to watch and for a variety of reasons there wasn’t much rugby played and we know we’ve got a lot of areas we need to work on if we want to achieve what we want to achieve, both as a club and as individuals.”

Referee: Alex Thomas

Attendance: 694

Yellow Card: Bean (Birmingham Moseley)

Titans: Nagle-Taylor, Dever, Poole, Abrahams (3C)

Birmingham Moseley: R Roach (3T), Williams (C, P)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Henry Roberts (Field 69), 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever (Dolly 75), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 52), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 75), 4 Conor Keys (Cotterill 40), 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.). 

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Tom Cotterill, 19 Connor Field, 20 Alex Dolly.

Birmingham Moseley: 15 Mike Penn, 14 Alex Hearle, 13 Ollie Allsopp (Fatiaki 69), 12 James Williams, 11 Louis Roach, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Rob Lewis (Capt.) (Pointon 75), 1 Joe Wrafter, 2 Ryan Roach, 3 Jay Tyack (Fidler 60), 4 Chukwuma Osazuwa, 5 Lewis Bean, 6 Jacques Le Roux (Cowan 40), 7 Josh Poole, 8 Chris Brightwell.

Replacements: 16 Adam Caves, 17 Tom Fidler, 18 Laurence Cowan, 19 Ravai Fatiaki, 20 Sam Pointon.

Photo courtesy of Rotherham Advertiser

Rosslyn Park 46 Titans 24

Rotherham Titans suffered a bad day at the office as they were well beaten 46-24 by Rosslyn Park at The Rock.

Rotherham were outscored by 7 tries to 3, with their dot downs coming from Connor Dever, Connor Field and Alex Dolly.

The defeat ends Titans unbeaten 5-match run and the South Yorkshire side will now look to bounce straight back against Birmingham Moseley at Clifton Lane on Saturday.

Titans slow start to the game didn’t help their cause and as the scoreboard pressure mounted Titans found it difficult to get their game going. As a result they went in at the break trailing 15-3 with just an Ellis Abrahams penalty to show for their efforts.

However, when scrum half Connor Dever touched down 2 minutes into the second half Rotherham’s hopes received a boost as with the conversion they reduced their arrears to 15-10

And again after conceding another Rosslyn Park try, a Connor Field converted try on 52 minutes saw Rotherham once more reduce their deficit to 5 points.

The South Yorkshire side couldn’t be criticised for their effort, but too many individual errors meant the home side were given too many opportunities to demonstrate what a good side they are.

On the hour mark former Bristol winger Charlie Amesbury ran through to extend the home side lead and when Titans’ Connor Field was rightly shown a yellow card by an eager James Clarke, the hosts ruthlessly scored two converted tries in his absence to seal the game.

Both sides scored late converted tries, but this was a game the Rotherham players will want to forget and put right as soon as possible.

Speaking after the match Titans head coach, Joe Barker, explained, “I’m very disappointed because we didn’t turn up in the first 30 minutes. I don’t know if we were over eager to do well but we need to take a good look at ourselves individually and as a team because we just weren’t at the races in the opening period.

“When you fall behind early that creates scoreboard pressure and that doesn’t help, but we kept giving them field position. We had boys switching off defensively on the inside and to be fair to Rosslyn Park they’ve got a good squad and they capitalised well on our mistakes.

“However, when we had the ball we put some really good phases together and we scored some outstanding tries and we showed glimpses of what a good side we can be. We also defended really well at times, but then we kept on making little errors and it was those errors that killed us and that just wasn’t good enough.”

Referee: James Clarke

Attendance: 695

Yellow Card: Field (Titans)

Titans: Dever (T), Field (T), Dolly (T), Abrahams (3C, P)

Rosslyn Park: Ellis (T), Gillanders (T), Hayhow (T), Amesbury (T), Marfo (T), Munro (T), Lound (T, 4C, P)

Titans: 15 Tom Allott (Dolly 49), 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne (Allott 64), 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever (Poole 69), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Ali Thomson (Bergmanas 62), 3 Will Dennis (Stout 62), 4 Conor Keys (Ure 64), 5 Jamie Ure (Smith-Wano 34), 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole (Frost 34), 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Rikki Stout, 18 Kieran Frost, 19 Eru Smith-Wano, 20 Alex Dolly.

Rosslyn Park: 15 Harry Leonard, 14 Connor Hayhow (Marfo 49), 13 Oliver Grove, 12 Joe Munro, 11 Charlie Amesbury, 10 Greg Lound, 9 Jack Gash, 1 Maurice Nwakor-Nwanaebi (Wade 40), 2 Tom Vaughan-Edwards (Gibson 68), 3 Paul Doran-Jones (Maguire 40), 4 Jonathan Mills (Tizard 49), 5 Greg Gillanders, 6 Adam Frampton, 7 Arthur Ellis, 8 Henry Spencer.

Replacements: 16 Karl Gibson, 17 Stewart Maguire, 18 Alistair Wade, 19 Hugh Tizard, 20 Ben Marfo.

Photo courtesy of David E Whittam