Match Reports — Titans Rugby

Rotherham Titans would have been distraught to have lost 31-24 at home to Bishop’s Stortford, after dominating for large periods of the game.

Titans however, can only blame themselves for the defeat after all too often poor decision making, a lack of execution and ill-discipline all conspired to cost them what would have been an important victory.

From the off with a kick that went out on the full, until the end where the visitors scored the winning points in the final play of the game, Rotherham will look back and reflect on the number of points they “gave” Stortford in their quest for victory.

A poor first half effort from Titans saw them trail at the break 17-12 after going behind as early as the second minute after Bishop’s centre James Ayrton strolled through with ease.

Titans finally got on the board through number 8 Anthony Maka on 18 minutes as he dotted down under the posts. Unfortunately for Sam Hollingsworth, his conversion was charged down to leave the hosts trailing by two points.

Stortford’s lead was extended to five point just moments later when fly half George Cullen slotted over a penalty.

Once again though Rotherham bounced back when second rower Kieran Frost showed good awareness and strength to barge his way over and when Hollingsworth tagged over the extra Titans held the lead for the first time at 12-10.

That lead however lasted less than 3 minutes as James Ayrton sailed in again, and again it was all too easy as far as Rotherham were concerned, and when George Cullen converted the visitors went 17-12 to the good.

The opening quarter of the second half brought out the best of Rotherham as they dominated in every facet of the game and during this spell they scored two tries.

The first one came on 45 minutes as Anthony Maka powered over from close range and the second came following a dominant spell of forward pressure which resulted in replacement prop Harry Whitfield going over in the corner to give Titans a 24-17 edge.

Again though, Rotherham couldn’t hold onto their lead and within four minutes Stortford’s full back Nick Hankin finished off a nice backs move to level things up at 24 each following Cullen’s conversion.

And although it was Rotherham who enjoyed the majority of possession in the time which remained; in the final play of the match Bishop’s winger Josh Stannard finished off a counter attack in the corner to clinch the game and break the hearts of the home side.

A disappointed Steve Salvin speaking on the pitch at full time said, “We are bitterly disappointed not to have won the game, but what I would say is I don’t feel like we deserved to win it.

“We put ourselves in a position to win the game, we were 7 points up with less than 10 minutes left and the key thing there is you have to have the ability to see out the game and we weren’t able to do that.

“We were poor in the first half, we came out for the second half and we were much improved, but I think ultimately what’s cost us is our ill-discipline in the first half and our inability to convert pressure into points in the second half.

“So I don’t feel hard done by, I feel like we’ve got what we deserved today, but the positive is we’ve taken two points and that has closed the gap at the bottom to four points.”

Referee: Charlie Gayther

Attendance: 462

Yellow Card: Thacker (Bishop’s Stortford)

Titans: Maka (2T), Frost (T), Whitfield (T), Hollingsworth (2C)

Bishop’s Stortford: Ayrton (2T), Hankin (T), Stannard (T), Cullen (4C, P)

Titans: 15 Tom Benjamin, 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Tom Bullough, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Toby Williams (Whitfield 60), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Newborn 60), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Kieran Frost (North56), 6 Lewis Wilson 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Anthony Maka.

Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Harry Whitfield, 18 Alfie North, 19 Kiefer Laxton, 20 Sam Boxhall.

Bishop’s Stortford: 15 Nick Hankin, 14 Josh Stannard, 13 Sam Winter (Capt.), 12 James Ayrton, 11 Chris Smith (Linney 56), 10 George Cullen, 9 Tom Banks (Gliksten 60), 1 Louis Castiglione, 2 Harrison King (Huppatz 70), 3 Kieran Sassone (McCrone 70), 4 James Thacker, 5 Tom Lewis, 6 Luis Ball (Banks 64), 7 Dan Elsom, 8 Charlie Kingham.

Replacements: 16 Miles Huppatz, 17 Tom McCrone, 18 Rory Banks, 19 Joss Linney, 20 Al Gliksten.

Rotherham Titans were bitterly disappointed to not get the win against top-end side Rams, as they were narrowly beaten 25-20 at Old Bath Road on a wet and blustery afternoon.

The fact Rotherham were so disappointed not to pick up a bonus point win, over one of the very best teams in the division, really does show how far this group has progressed since the turn of the year.

They now however, need to make sure they start to get over the line in these close encounters if they are to maintain their status in National 1 for next season.

The game itself swung one way then another throughout the 80 minutes.

Indeed the hosts took the lead as early as the third minute when flanker Tom Vooght barged his way over, with fly half Alex Seers converting and it would be fair to say the hosts deserved their lead.

In fact Rams enjoyed the bulk of play for most of the first quarter and only some aggressive defensive work by the Titans kept the Reading based outfit at bay.

However, just after the half hour Rotherham hit a purple patch and incredibly scored three tries before the half time oranges.

First up on 31 minutes was blindside flanker Lewis Wilson, who after some fine work from the Titans pack, which first saw Anthony Maka make some good ground, he was on hand to collect from Sam Boxhall to dot down under the posts. Connor Dever tagged over the extras to level things up at 7 apiece.

Just three minutes later and Titans went ahead when Tom Benjamin scored a scintillating try.

An initial break from Connor Dever inside the Rotherham half got them moving, before the ball was spread across the backline to Benjamin who collected whilst still in his own half. The flying fullback then evaded two Rams defenders before showing exceptional footwork to round Will Partington to score a brilliant try. Dever missed the difficult conversion from out wide.

Back came the hosts however and they levelled matters two minutes before the break when skipper Robbie Stapley dotted down from the base of a powerful scrum.

Undeterred Titans fought back with great determination as the game went into injury time.

From a line out on the hosts 22 the Rotherham’s pack powered forward before Anthony Maka broke away and took play up to the Rams line.

The ball came out to Connor Dever who neatly found winger Ben Robbins and he showed immense strength to bulldoze his way over for a terrific try to end the half and send his side in with a 17-12 advantage.

Playing with the slope in the second half Rams levelled the game at 17 each on 47 minutes when winger Jack Rossiter stepped inside from out wide to touch down; following what had been s sustained period of Rams forward pressure inside the Titans 22.

On the hour mark the hosts nosed 20-17 ahead from an Alex Seers penalty after Titans were unluckily adjudged to have made a high tackle, before Rotherham again levelled the score when Sam Hollingsworth added a penalty on 69 minutes, after referee Fergus Kirby disallowed a Rotherham try for a forward pass.

Four minutes from time Referee Kirby then sent Lewis Wilson to the bin for a technical offence and a minute later Rams ruthlessly exploited their man advantage to crash over through replacement forward Ross Crame.

In the final play of the game Rotherham looked dangerous 15 metres from the Rams line and with good momentum, as they powered forward looking for a bonus point victory. Unfortunately for them they knocked on at a crucial time and that was that.

Speaking on the pitch after the game, a disappointed Steve Salvin said, “I think this result against one of the best sides in the division shows how far this group has come in a short space of time, since the turn of the year. However, that doesn’t stop us from being immensely frustrated that whichever way you look at it, that should have been a five-point win for us today!

“We’ve made that evident to the players, they are hurting every bit as much as the coaches and the backroom staff, but how far we have come doesn’t make a great deal of difference at the moment because we should have come away with five points.

“Our discipline let us down, we gave away too many opportunities when we had field position; we either coughed-up the ball or we gave away a penalty, which in turn led to us giving them possession and territory. There were probably nine or ten instances of that when we could have built pressure, but we gave them an easy out through poor skill execution or poor discipline.

“So yes we have come a long way, but at some point we have to make these opportunities count and that’s why I’m so frustrated because it should have happened today. I’m sure when the emotion has drained out we’ll take a huge amount of positives from what the boys did against a very good side.”

Referee: Fergus Kirby

Attendance: 523

Yellow Card: Guttridge (Rams), Wilson (Titans)

Titans: Wilson (T), Benjamin (T), Robbins (T), Dever (1C), Hollingsworth (1P)

Rams: Vooght (T), Stapley (T), Rossiter (T), Crame (T), Seers (1C, 1P)

Titans: 15 Tom Benjamin, 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Tom Bacon, 10 Sam Hollingsworth (Boxhall 15) (Hollingsworth 55), 9 Connor Dever, 1 Harry Whitfield (Williams 41), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Newborn 63), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Lewis Wilson 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Anthony Maka (Waddington 61) (North 66).

Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Ben Waddington, 19 Alfie North, 20 Sam Boxhall.

Rams: 15 William Partington, 14 Jack Rossiter, 13 Kieran Leicester, 12 Andrew Humberstone, 11 Andrew Denham, 10 Alex Seers (Hayhow 63), 9 Ollie Cole, 1 Niall Kidd, 2 Ben Henderson (Moffitt 41), 3 James Baker (Zeiss 67), 4 Oliver Taylor, 5 Colin Thomson, 6 Jamie Guttridge (Crame 63), 7 Tom Vooght, 8 Robbie Stapley (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ollie Moffitt, 17 Cameron Zeiss, 18 Ross Crame, 19 Connor Hayhow, 20 Jack Moates.

Titans 24 Bishop’s Stortford 31

Rams 25 Titans 20