Huddersfield 39 Titans 27

Rotherham Titans suffered a disappointing 39-27 defeat away at Huddersfield on a cold afternoon at Lockwood Park.

Titans scored three tries through Rupert Kay, Zak Poole and Callum Busting, with Lloyd Hayes adding 12 points from the tee.

Rotherham for the second season running left Lockwood Park disappointed as Huddersfield demonstrated once again they are not a team to be underestimated at home.

Titans actually started the game much the brighter and only a determined defensive display from the hosts kept their line intact as the first quarter elapsed without score.

Will Milner and Lloyd Hayes then traded penalties before winger Kian Stewart dotted down in the corner for the first try of the game for Huddersfield.

Milner stretched Field’s advantage before the break with a penalty, but in the final play of the half and despite being reduced to 14 men due to Charlie Capps receiving a yellow card, Rotherham’s Rupert Kay crashed over the whitewash with great determination. Hayes’ conversion sent Roth in at the break trailing 13-10.

Inside 6 minutes of the restart Rotherham went ahead after a Lloyd Hayes penalty and a quick thinking try from skipper Zak Poole, who had his wits about him from a rapidly taken penalty to go over next to the posts for a converted try to make it 20-13.

However, within a 10 minute spell it all went horribly wrong for Rotherham as Huddersfield winger Kian Stewart helped himself to a hat-trick.

Suddenly Roth trailed 32-20 in a game they had enjoyed the better moments and they looked shell-shocked.

Seven minutes from time though Titans gave themselves some hope of a recovery when Callum Busting barged his way over for a converted try to reduced his side’s arrears to 32-27.

However, those hopes were finally dashed late on when Field’s other winger Finlay Stewart – brother of Kian – galloped home to seal a deserved win.

Rotherham will now have to quickly put their disappointment behind them and prepare for a huge South Yorkshire derby against Sheffield at Clifton Lane this Saturday.

Speaking after the match a disappointed Titans Gary Pearce said:

“We played all the rugby in the first half, but we were just playing in the middle of the field. They didn’t play much rugby or many phases, but in the second half they score three tries from three kicks which came out of nothing.

“We just played dumb in certain situations; our lads worked hard, but we just kept on making error after error and that’s just not good enough at this level. We did play some good stuff at times, but we have to keep hold of the ball and we didn’t, we just gave the ball away too easily.

“I can’t express how disappointed we are; I told the lads we have to front-up and be better than we were today. We’re not a bad side but we aren’t showing that right now.

“They get the ball and score from nothing, they didn’t even have to work for their tries; it’s not as though they have pounded us and they’ve come at us for 6 or 8 phases; no, we just let them score from one phase and we really can’t let that happen and we made too many individual errors.

“The scoreboard shows they got 39 point’s, they’re not a 39 point side against us. We get down there and put on lots of pressure and we have to earn our points, they didn’t have to do that for their points and that’s not good enough.

“We need to get back on the training ground and work that bit harder to get better as a squad, because at the minute it’s not very good.

“You sometimes have to hold your hand up; you put a Rotherham shirt on and you’ve got to be accountable and at the minute they are not accountable for the errors and we need to help them improve so we can cut down on them.”

Referee: Llyr Apgeraint-Roberts

Attendance: 437

Yellow Card: Capps (Titans)

Titans: Kay (T), Poole (T), Busting (T), Hayes (3C, 2P)

Huddersfield: K. Stewart (4T), F. Stewart (T), Milner (4C, 2P)

Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 Sam Veall, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 28 Callum Busting (Dunne 36), 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue (Richardson 36) (Sableman-Blue 45) (Ollivent 70), 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Richardson 75), 3 Gareth Denman (Rylance 30), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope (Cambier 75), 6 Marcus Payne (Busting 53), 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Tom Richardson, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Cade Cambier, 19 Harry Dunne, 22 Corban Ollivent. 

Huddersfield: 15 Tom Hodson, 14 Kian Stewart (Law 72), 13 Lewis Workman, 12 Ed Barber, 11 Finlay Stewart, 10 Will Milner, 9 Joe Potter (Wilson 53), 1 Callum Thompson (Dawson 75), 2 Ethan Myers, 3 Andy Rollins, 4 Luke Pearson, 5 Eddie Brown, 6 Liam Parfitt (Stapley 70), 7 Lewis Bradley (Capt.), 8 Rob Jennings (Jones 48).

Replacements: 16 Alex Dawson, 19 Liam Stapley, 20 Matt Law, 21 Simon Wilson, 22 Tom Jones.

Titans 20 Sedgley Park 38

Rotherham Titans put in a big effort before unfortunately going down 38-20 to league leaders Sedgley Park on a blustery afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans scored two tries through Connor Dever and Luckas Sableman-Blue, with Lloyd Hayes adding 10 points from the tea.

To be fair the better team on the day won the game and they will likely go on to win the division and ply their trade in National 1 next season, but the scoreline slightly flattered the North West outfit.

Indeed Rotherham, with the elements in their favour in the first half, were the better side and took a deserved 13-5 lead in at the break.

Titans’ scrum half Connor Dever got the scoreboard ticking over as early as the fifth minute when he sniped over from close to the line following a period of forward pressure. Lloyd Hayes impressed in the difficult conditions with the conversion.

Connor James soon replied for the visitors down the left hand side to score in the corner, but fly half Steve Collins wasn’t able to add the extras.

Roth continued to have good periods throughout, but unfortunately for them they were unable to penetrate the whitewash, in no small part, this was due to some outstanding defensive sets from Park.

Nevertheless Roth did add to their tally with two nicely taken penalties from Lloyd Hayes.

Just before the break Sedgley Park back rower Connor James suffered a nasty lower leg injury which brought the half to a premature conclusion.

Fortunately Rotherham has an excellent medical department and Doctor Chris Myers and head physio David Swift were quickly on hand to assist Connor within seconds. All at Clifton Lane wish Connor a speedy recovery.

At the beginning of the second half there was some controversy when Rhys Henderson was deemed to have scored a try, which some suggested close to the play was indeed beyond the dead ball line.

Nevertheless, credit has to go to Henderson for his tenacious chase which led to the game-changing moment.

Rotherham appeared to be shaken by the outcome and Sedgley took heart and within 15 minutes they added another try from full back Andy Riley and two penalties from Collins to stretch their lead to 23-13.

Titans however never stopped putting in a shift and hopes of a fightback were raised when just after the hour mark winger Luckas Sableman-Blue dotted down in the corner following quick hands along the backline. Hayes mightily impressed from out wide with his conversion to reduce Titans arrears to 23-20.

Sedgley however are top of the league for a reason and before the end they scored two more tries through Dan Mayer and Rhys Henderson, with Collins adding a third penalty to round things off.

Park seemed to have improved a lot from earlier in the season and it’s difficult to see them not lifting the divisional honours this term.

Rotherham will now regroup and prepare for next week’s Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield at Lockwood Park.

Speaking afterwards Titans head coach, Gary Pearce, said:

“I think we are still a bit too naive about where we play the game; when you’ve got a day like today where the wind is so strong, you can’t play all your rugby on the halfway line. They gave us a lesson in the second half in how to play in those conditions and they made very few errors.

“The game changer was the try which was given at the start of the second half. I couldn’t see from where I was on halfway, but the people down at that end said it was over the dead ball line. If it was then that’s obviously very disappointing.

“It’s moments like that which can change the momentum of games and I think that happened today. However, what we can’t question is the lad’s effort and commitment.

“We know we’re a long way from being a top of the table side at this point and we have to give Sedgley a lot of credit. They are a good side and now they are 18 and 0 for the season. They are disciplined, well organised and well drilled and they have a lot of good players that have been together a long time.

“But we are still very disappointed because we thought we would really be in with a chance and we were for long periods; but crucially you have to put points on the board when you have your moments and we didn’t do that enough times today.”

Referee: Ben Rayner

Attendance: 250

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Dever (T), Sableman-Blue (T), Hayes (2C, 2P)

Sedgley Park: Henderson (2T), James (T), A. Riley (T), Mayer (T), Collins (2C, 3P)

Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Jack Taylor (Carlisle 51), 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Callum Bustin, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Connor Dever (Boxhall 45), 1 Charlie Capps (Rylance 74), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Richardson 77), 3 Gareth Denman (Rylance 30) (Denman 53), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Marcus Payne (Allan 65), 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Tom Richardson, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Lewis Allan, 19 Joe Carlisle, 20 Sam Boxhall. 

Sedgley Park: 15 Andy Riley, 14 Rhys Henderson, 13 Oliver Glasse, 12 Matt Riley (Capt.), 11 Jamie Harrison, 10 Steve Collins, 9 Jacob Tansey (Bedlow 16), 1 John Blanchard, 2 Dan Mayer (Mallinson 74), 3 Beltus Nonleh (Black 35) (Nonleh 62), 4 Bob Birtwell, 5 Oscar Crowe (Chilvers 74), 6 Connor James (Bentley 37), 7 Mark Goodman, 8 Tom Ailes.

Replacements: 16 Cash Chilvers, 17 Adam Mallinson, 18 Ben Black, 19 Valu Tane Bentley, 20 Joe Bedlow.

Titans 52 Hull Ionians 25

Rotherham Titans put in a brilliant performance to overrun third-placed side Hull Ionians 52-25 on a bright afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Roth showed that on their day they can be a handful for any side in the division as they outscored their opponents by 8 tries to 3.

Rotherham’s tries came way of a brace on debut for Tomasi Tanumi, with one each for Callum Bustin, Gareth Denman, Matt Challinor, Danny Rylance, Lloyd Hayes, who also added 12 points from the tee and fittingly on his 100th appearance for the club, Zak Poole.

Titans raced out of the blocks and showed their intent from the start and their appetite for the contest was clear to see.

That intent was duly rewarded inside 16 minutes as Titans scored twice through driving mauls close to the line in “Plant’s Corner”. Callum Bustin and Gareth Denman were each on hand to dot down.

Hull Ionians are not third in the table for no reason and before the half hour mark they struck back through Lewis Minikin who knocked over a penalty, scored a try and then converted it to reduce his side’s arrears to 14-10.

However, undeterred Rotherham continued to show great energy and desire. This in turn led to a third try before the break when the ball was shipped on to Matt Challinor for him to clatter his way over. Hayes’ conversion ended the half with Roth 21-10 t the good.

An early Lewis Minikin penalty was soon surpassed as Titans secured one point with their fourth try. This came after I’s bundled a line out inside their 22, allowing Roth to poach and spread the ball quickly through the backs for Tomasi Tanumi to step back inside to score a fine try on debut.

Titans were now buoyant and look threatening every time they had possession and they didn’t have to wait too long before their next score.

On 53 minutes a quick-tap penalty from Connor Dever found prop forward Danny Rylance and he showed great determination to power over close to the sticks.

Ionians did register a second try on the hour mark through replacement forward Tyler Heelas, but within a minute Titans knocked any hopes of a late comeback on the head when Tomasi Tanumi scored his second in the corner following great work in the build-up from Lloyd Hayes.

Inside the final 10 minutes Rotherham added two further tries through Lloyd Hayes and fittingly Zak Poole on his 100th appearance for the club, before with the last play of the game Ionians got a consolation try through the talented Jack Townend.

All in all not too many from outside the Titans camp would have seen this result as possible, but inside the dressing room it was thought a corner had been turned and a win was definitely attainable against what is a very good Ionians side.

Titans will now get back to the training field and aim to improve further for when they take on top-of-the-league Sedgley Park on Saturday at Clifton Lane.

Speaking after the game Titans head coach, Gary Pearce, said:

“We’re obviously delighted with the result; when we played Fylde the other week we were really good and we were very unlucky not to beat them that day. And we know our lads have plenty of heart and spirit and that we have some good players here.

“We scored 8 tries and were pretty dominant; we bashed them and across the park we were really good. We brought Tomasi Tanumi in this week and I thought he made a nice impact. He communicates well and that helps a lot with some of the younger lads.

“Our forwards were very dominant; they caused so much carnage out there which was great to watch; but we should be doing that because they are good players.

“We are at home and the expectation is that we win games and we should be winning games; so hopefully from here with a little bit of a fire inside them we can hopefully carry that on into the rest of the season.

“This is all down to the players, they are the ones that have to come out and do the business and that’s what they have done and full credit to them.”

Referee: Nathan Howarth

Attendance: 250

Yellow Card: Payne (Titans), Pocklington (Ionians)

Titans: Tanumi (2T), Bustin (T), Denman (T), Challinor (T), Rylance (T), Poole (T), Hayes (T, 6C)

Hull Ionians: Heelas (T), Townend (T), Minikin (T, 2P, 2C)

Titans: 15 Sam Veall (Tucker 71), 14 Jack Taylor, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Callum Bustin, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Lloyd Hayes (Dever 77), 9 Connor Dever (Boxhall 66), 1 Charlie Capps (Denman 48), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Richardson 75), 3 Gareth Denman (Rylance 30), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Marcus Payne (Allan 75), 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Tom Richardson, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Lewis Allan, 19 George Tucker, 20 Sam Boxhall.   

Hull Ionians: 15 Lewis Minikin, 14 Sam Wilson, 13 Cameron Burnhill, 12 Jack Townend, 11 Josh Britton (Celella 67), 10 Ben Smith, 9 Sam Pocklington, 1 Chris Morton, 2 Allan Hudson, 3 David Laverick (Westwood 33), 4 Joe Makin, 5 Alex Campbell (Heelas 51), 6 Callam Sanderson, 7 James Sanderson (Capt.) (Powell 67), 8 Declan Thompson.

Replacements: 16 Scott Westwood, 17 Lucas Powell, 18 Tyler Heelas, 19 Tom Bullough, 20 Alfredo Celella.

Titans 20 Wharfedale 27

Rotherham Titans were disappointingly beaten 27-20 by an energetic Wharfedale outfit on an overcast afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans did pick up the losing bonus point and scored three tries through Lloyd Hayes, Luckas Sableman-Blue and Aydan Godden, with Hayes also adding 5 points from the tee.

In truth Rotherham lost the game in the first half after an uninspiring performance saw them go in at the break trailing 13-5, after some indifferent moments on their part against a Wharfedale side that looked eager all afternoon.

Nevertheless, despite not having had much ball in the opening 15 minutes it was Rotherham who got on the board first.

A delightful cross-field kick from Connor Dever was perfectly weighted for Jack Taylor to collect on the right wing. He fed Sam Veall who made good ground before he slipped in Lloyd Hayes who showed tremendous strength to power over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Before the half hour mark however Wharfedale took a lead they would never relinquish with two penalties from fly half Tom Davidson.

Six minutes before the break Wharfedale scored their first try and from Titans point of view it was a disappointing one to concede.

Winger Oscar Canny took a quick-tap 10 metres from his own line and proceeded to gallop fifty metres down field before sending in flanker Joe Fawcett to score under the posts. Davidson tagged on the extras to send his side in at the break leading 13-5.

Rotherham improve and indeed won the second half and when Lloyd Hayes knocked over a penalty early on to reduce Titans arrears to 13-8, hopes were raised of a comeback.

However, just 5 minutes later and Wharfedale scored a second try; this too would have been a disappointing one to concede for Rotherham.

Scrum half Henry MacNab spotted a gap in the Roth defence just outside his own 22 and exploited this with a fifty-metre gallop downfield before interchanging passes with James Coulton. The pass back to him from Coulton looked forward, but MacNab didn’t hang around to find out and he raced in for a converted try.

Titans too showed they were up for the fight and bounced back quickly to score their second try through Luckas Sableman-Blue; he showed great power to get over the line following a good period of play from the Rotherham pack. Hayes nailed the extras to keep the game alive.

However, a Roth mistake soon afterwards resulted in Wharfedale’s third try.

Titans missed touch from a penalty which landed in-field 5 metres from the Wharfedale line. Credit to the Green Machine must be given, as following a number of phases they went the length of the field to allow scrum half MacNab to dot down for his second score. Davidson’s extras stretched his sides lead to 27-15.

Titans rallied late on and gave themselves some hope, when 5 minutes from time back rower Aydan Godden scored from the tail of a maul for an unconverted try.

Then Roth went in search of a score which would have levelled the game and given them two bonus points, but Wharfedale held out for a deserved win.

Speaking after the match Titans head coach, Gary Pearce, said:

“We were down to the bare bones and it was an opportunity for lads to step up.

“The problem we have is that with us having one team, our lads who don’t play regularly haven’t played in a long time whereas the lads who stepped in for Wharfedale play every week in their second team.

“We can’t make excuses and to be fair the scoreline flattered us a bit. We made too many errors.

“I’d say we’re too individual at the minute, not a team, and I think that’s been in evidence while I’ve been here really.

“We’re not going to change that overnight and now we move on to next week.”

Referee: Michael Harris

Attendance: 250

Yellow Card: Canny (Wharfedale)

Titans: Sableman-Blue (T), Godden (T), Hayes (T, C, P)

Wharfedale: MacNab (2T), Fawcett (T), Davidson (3C, 2P)

Titans: 15 Sam Veall (Parker 40), 14 Jack Taylor, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 21 George Tucker (Dever 75), 10 Connor Dever (Ramrattan 65), 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps (Donkor 36) (Capps 63), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Richardson 63) (Bergmanas 78), 3 Danny Rylance, 4 Matt Challinor (Capt.), 5 Cade Cambier, 6 Marcus Payne, 24 Aydan Godden, 8 Rupert Kay.

Replacements: 16 Tom Richardson, 17 Alastair Donkor, 22 Ollie Parker, 19 Kai Ramrattan, 20 Fraser Jones.  

Wharfedale: 15 Louis Verity, 14 Owen Bullock, 13 James Coulton, 12 Josh Walters, 11 Oscar Canny, 10 Tom Davidson, 9 Henry MacNab, 1 Joe Altham, 2 Jack Hirst, 3 Sam Dickinson, 4 Elliott Stockton, 5 Simon Borrill, 6 Joe Fawcett, 7 Rhys Green, 8 Rob Baldwin (Capt.).  

Replacements: 16 James Meehan, 17 Jack Kitching, 18 Sam Smith, 19 Ryan Hodgson, 20 Josh Prell.