Tynedale 31 Titans 47

Rotherham Titans maintained their title ambitions with a thrilling 47-31 win over Tynedale on a glorious, sunny afternoon at Station Road.

Rotherham outscored their North East opposition by 6 tries to 5, as Connor Field scored a hat-trick and Jamie Cooke, George Tucker and Tom Lewis all chipped in with 5-pointers; full back Lloyd Hayes had a productive day from the tee as he added a further 17 points.

Titans pretty much dominated the opening 40 minutes which saw them race into a 24-5 half time lead. Jamie Cooke opened the scoring for the South Yorkshire side after good work by the pack meant he could exploit the space outside to run in for the first try.

Lloyd Hayes knocked over a penalty shortly afterwards before Connor Field quickly followed up on the half hour with a try under the posts having picked off a pass to intercept from 35 metres out.

Roth’s third try which came five minutes later was a belter. From turnover ball on the edge of their own 22 Titans collected with first Keifer Laxton and then Zak Poole taking play up inside the Tynedale half. From there the ball was spread across the full width of the pitch for left wing George Tucker to dot down in the corner.

Just before the break there was the first sign of what was to come in the second half when Tynedale winger Seamus Hutton ran in to score.

Rotherham secured the bonus point on 50 minutes when scrum half Sam Boxhall took a quick-tap penalty and made good yardage downfield before finding Lloyd Hayes in support. The full back popped a pass to Connor Field who raced in to score his second of the match.

However, just after the hour mark Titans were stunned when in the space of 2 minutes the hosts ran in two tries through centre Will Miller and full back Robert Parker to reduce the hosts’ arrears to 17-31 which injected some urgency into the game.

Titans settled things down a little when Lloyd Hayes slotted over a penalty, but the peace didn’t last as from the restart Tynedale ran in for their bonus point try through Robert Parker.

In what was fast becoming a game of 7’s Rotherham hit back almost immediately when flanker Keifer Laxton made a busting break from around halfway to take play deep inside the 22, before he offloaded to Tom Lewis in support for his side’s fifth try of the game.

In a gallant display tenacious determination Tynedale came back once more and scored a fifth try through replacement forward Ben Bell, after Roth briefly switched-off from a penalty close to their line.

With four minutes remaining Rotherham would have been nervous, despite holding a 39-31 lead.

However, those nerves were put to bed when firstly Lloyd Hayes added his third penalty of the game and then winger Connor Field picked off another interception to run in from 55 metres to score in the corner and wrap up a thrilling game of rugby in the North East.

Speaking immediately after the match Titans Adam Byron said:

“The boys worked incredibly hard, it was a very hot day and again we are asking players that haven’t had a lot of rugby to come out here and do 80 minutes and they did an outstanding job.

“We had a depleted bench with only four boys on it; and of the two forwards on the bench we could only really use one of them and that‘s a big ask when it’s as hot as it was today.

“Nevertheless, the boys to dug in well because Tynedale made it hard work; every time you kick off you know they are going to have a go at you. And on a big, wide pitch like this one, where there is a lot of space to defend, they make it really hard for teams that come here for the full 80 minutes.

“We knew they were going to have a go at us, we knew they were going to run at us and throw the ball about, but the lads put in a great shift to make sure we did enough to win the game.”

Referee: Tim Allatt

Attendance: 280

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Field (3T), Cooke (T), Tucker (T), Tom Lewis (T), Hayes (4C, 3P)

Tynedale: Parker (2T), Hutton (T), Miller (T), Bell (T), Rodgers (3C)

Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 Connor Field, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 21 George Tucker, 10 Joe Carlisle (Lewis 35), 9 Sam Boxhall, 19 Tom Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 27 Rikki Stout (Quigley 35) (Stout 59), 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Marcus Payne, 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Colin Quigley, 18 Harry Williams, 22 Olly Fisher, 20 Tom Lewis.

Tynedale: 15 Robert Parker, 14 Guy Pike, 13 Ross Cooke, 12 Will Miller, 11 Seamus Hutton (Leslie 38), 10 Jake Rodgers, 9 Matty Outson (Capt.), 1 Angus White (Batey 68), 2 David Batey (Carmichael 50) (Telfer 74), 3 Liam Carmichael (Telfer 25) (Loughhead 50), 4 Chris Wearmouth, 5 Graeme Dunn, 6 Jonny Cousin (Bell 50), 7 Henry Wainwright (Blackburn 68), 8 Ben Blackburn (Stanwix 50). 

Replacements: 16 Adam Telfer, 17 Owen Loughhead, 18 Ben Bell, 19 Rob Stanwix, 20 Josh Leslie.   

Photo Credit: John & Barbara Austin

Chester 17 Titans 34

Rotherham Titans maintained an interest at the sharp end of the table with a hard-fought 34-17 win over Chester on a bright and sunny afternoon at Hare Lane.

A keenly contested first half saw Chester race into a 12-0 lead after 26 minutes, before the South Yorkshire side bounced back to score 5 tries through a brace from Jamie Cooke and one each for Rikki Stout, Keifer Laxton and Connor Field.

The South Yorkshire side however did not have things all their own way and following a sluggish start found themselves behind after just 2 minutes when centre Ben Ivory dotted down for fly half Iwan Phillips to convert.

Matters got worse for Roth, who to be fair were struggling to put any significant work together at this stage, when prop forward Alex Reed barged over following more good work from the home side.

Titans eventually got themselves on the board after 30 minutes with a scintillating try from Jamie Cooke. The powerful centre collected on halfway following a line out and then proceeded to cut back inside before galloping down the right wing to score in the corner. Joe Carlisle impressed from out wide with the extras.

Confidence boosted, Rotherham grew into the contest and levelled matters before the break when tighthead prop Rikki Stout touched down following a powerful drive from a line out; Jack Bergmanas’ work in the drive was outstanding.

The second half saw Titans pretty much dominate throughout and in effect seal the game with a 3-try haul in the space of five minutes.

First up on 46 minutes and following a brilliant line break from Lloyd Hayes, play was taken inside the Chester 22. From there the ball was spread quickly along the line and collected by flanker Keifer Laxton who showed a good turn of foot to race in and score as he fended off two defenders.

From the restart the Titans defence showed good line speed which enabled winger Connor Field to pick-off a pass and gallop in from 55 metres for the bonus point try.

The fifth try quickly followed when Joe Carlisle threw a deft little pass to Jamie Cooke who raced in from 45 metres, before having to use great strength to shake-off two defenders to get over the line.

Six minutes from time Lloyd Hayes gave his pack a breather as he nail a penalty to extend his sides lead to 34-12.

However, in the final play of the match Chester scored their third try and it was no more than they deserved when a move which started in their own 22 was finished off by Ben Ivory.

Titans will now prepare for next week’s trip to Tynedale as they attempt to keep in touch with the leaders.

Speaking after the game Titans Adam Byron said:

“It’s always concerning when you go behind early, but what that does do is give you the opportunity to react within the game and that’s something we’ve been working on; that ability to change things within a 40-minute period and not just at half time.

“I was really pleased with how the boys reacted and to go in at half time at 12 apiece was a really big achievement and it set us up for a good second half.

“We had a chat at half time because we understood what did and didn’t work, we knew what we needed to change defensively and once we made the defensive changes Chester found it very difficult to break us down.

“We then played some very good rugby and opportunities came our way; the shape we played exposed them and that was really good to see.

“However, the most pleasing thing was how the boys reacted after the first 20 minutes, they did it all themselves, they made the right changes and really got us on to the front foot.

“Injury wise we’re up against it at the moment, but the boys are really pulling together and it’s great to see everyone contributing to what we are trying to achieve.”

Referee: Ben Davis

Attendance: 377

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Cooke (2T), Stout, (T), Laxton (T), Field (T), Hayes (2C, 1P), Carlisle (1C)

Chester: Ivory (2T), Reed (T), Phillips (1C)

Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 Connor Field (Veall 73), 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 21 George Tucker, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall (Fisher 75), 19 Tom Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 27 Rikki Stout, 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Harry Williams (Payne 60), 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Colin Quigley, 18 Marcus Payne, 22 Olly Fisher, 20 Sam Veall.

Chester: 15 Gethin Long, 14 Jonny Roberts, 13 Ben Ivory, 12 Tom Scott, 11 Kier Gordon, 10 Iwan Phillips, 9 Tom Holloway (Craven 53), 1 Tom Furnival (Woods 45), 2 Scott Robson (Williams 75), 3 Alex Reed (Williams 28) (Reed 58) (Guest 70), 4 George Spalding, 5 James Lloyd (Brearey 56), 6 Harry Wilkinson (Capt.), 7 Sam Brearey (Farrar 45), 8 David Ford (Lloyd 70).

Replacements: 18 Wade Williams, 20 Joshua Woods, 17 Tom Guest, 19 Sam Farrar, 21 John Craven.

Titans 33 Chester 28

Rotherham Titans ran out worthy 33-28 winners over a tenacious Chester side on a bright, but blustery afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans outscored their Cheshire based opponents by five tries to four to maintain an interest in taking the top spot come mid-May.

Rotherham’s points came from touch downs via Jamie Cooke, George Tucker, Harry Dunne, Lloyd Hayes and a penalty try, with 6 points coming from the boot of fly half Joe Carlisle.

Despite a horrendous list of injuries in the Titans pack, which include Charlie Capps, Colin Quigley, Matt Challinor, Matt Smith, Lewis Wilson, Callum Bustin and Kieran Curran, the South Yorkshire side showed great resilience to maintain their unbeaten record at Clifton Lane this season.

However, Roth started slowly out of the blocks and it was Chester who scored first when fly half Liam Reeve knocked over a penalty on 12 minutes, before moments later winger Kier Gordon ran in too easily to touch down in the corner to give his side an early 8-0 lead.

As the first quarter came to a close Roth finally got themselves on the board, when a scrum 5 metres from the line was collapsed by Chester, it left  referee Daniel Woods with no option but to award Titans a penalty try.

Titans’ joy however was short-lived as the injury curse struck again and again it was a forward! This time it was Matti Williams who left the field with what appeared to be a neck injury.

Nevertheless the home side quickly regrouped and scored their second try within minutes.

From a scrum on halfway next to the main stand, scrum half Sam Boxhall found Joe Carlisle who flung out a beautiful  long miss-pass to Harry Dunne before he drew the last defender to send in winger Jamie Cooke for a really nice score.

Rotherham were now rampant and their third try followed quickly, when after a period of possession inside the Chester 22 the ball was spread across the field and into the hands of full back George Tucker who found a gap in the defence to race through.

The bonus point try for Rotherham came just before half time when Connor Field made good ground towards the line, which allowed an alert Harry Dunne to nip in and dive over for a simple score.

As the sides went in at the break, Rotherham would have been pleased with their 28-8 lead and maybe they thought job done.

However, another slow start to the half saw Chester exploit some errors from the home side and within 8 minutes they crossed the whitewash twice through back rower George Baxter and full back Gethin Long to reduce their arrears to 28-18.

The nerves of the home side were calmed just after the hour mark when Lloyd Hayes cut back inside to score Roth’s fifth try following some good powerful work down the left flank from Jamie Cooke.

However, those nerves were jangling again late on after replacement back rower Sam Farrar went over for Chester on 74 minutes for a converted try and Liam Reeve added a penalty as the game went into injury time.

Thankfully for the home side they managed the game out well and held on for a deserved win.

The two sides will have another go at each other next week as the original game in Chester was postponed due to Covid earlier in the season.

Commenting after the match Titans’ Adam Byron said:

“We came into the game wanting five points and that’s what we’ve come away with; so we are pleased with that aspect of the match.

“However, we have 8 forwards out now after today’s game and that obviously will make any teams task that little bit more difficult; but we have to give credit to the boys who came in and put in a great shift.

“We started the game off slowly for some reason, but something seemed to change after about 20 minutes; although we had created a couple of chances early on, we seemed to really turn the screw from the mid-point of the first 40.

“I was a little bit frustrated with how we came out in the second half and again we seemed to struggle a little bit in terms of putting in a full 80-minute performance, but that is something we can work on going forward.

“We are still in the fight for promotion and we’ll continue to give everything as we pursue our ambitions.”

Referee: Daniel Woods

Attendance: 364

Yellow Card: Furnival (Chester)

Titans: Cooke (T), Tucker (T), Dunne (T), Hayes (T), Penalty Try, Carlisle (3C)

Chester: Gordon (T), Baxter (T), Long (T), Farrar (T), Reeve (2P, 1C)

Titans: 21 George Tucker, 14 Connor Field (Veall 70), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall, 28 Alastair Donkor (Richardson 40), 2 Jack Bergmanas, 27 Rikki Stout, 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Keifer Laxton, 7 Matti Williams (H. Williams 21), 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 22 Olly Fisher, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Tom Richardson, 20 Sam Veall.

Chester: 15 Gethin Long, 14 Jonny Roberts (Parry 20), 13 Ben Ivory, 12 Tom Scott, 11 Kier Gordon, 10 Liam Reeve, 9 Tom Holloway (Malik 61), 1 Tom Furnival (Roberts 28), 2 Scott Robson (Woods 60), 3 Wade Williams (Furnival 33) (Williams 60), 4 Harry Wilkinson (Capt.) (Spalding 40), 5 James Lloyd, 6 George Baxter (Spalding 46), 7 Sam Brearey, 8 David Ford.

Replacements: 17 Rhodri Parry, 20 Joshua Woods, 18 George Spalding, 19 Sam Farrar, 22 Oscar Malik.

Photo Credit: Gareth Siddons

Hull 20 Titans 17

Rotherham Titans suffered heartbreak at the end of a pulsating clash, as winger Michael Adlard ran in to score from a cross-field kick with 2 minutes remaining to give Hull a dramatic 20-17 win.

The result leaves the Humberside outfit as heavy favourites to go on and win the league.

However, despite the disappointing loss, Titans will battle on in pursuit as they attempt to chase down their Yorkshire rivals, alongside Sedgley Park who are still very much in the race to finish top of the pile.

The game itself was played in front of a bumper crowd thanks to the travelling support, but in wintry conditions as a swirling wind and constant drizzle kept both sides attention throughout.

Indeed it was Rotherham who enjoyed the better of things during a keenly fought opening quarter; despite losing experienced prop forward Colin Quigley on 10 minutes to a nasty looking facial injury.

On 16 minutes Titans thought they had opened the scoring, but unfortunately for them they were held-up over the line.

Titans would rue not putting some points on the board during this period of the game, as on 20 minutes Lady Luck turned her back on them.

From a kick through from Hull’s Stephen Johnson, Titans full back Matt Minogue tried to control the ball with his foot; however the ball spun forward allowing his opposite number Reece Dean to hack on and chase through to score.

Boosted by the try Hull came into the game more and they enjoyed some good success, particularly at scrum time.

On the half hour mark and after a number of reset scrums close to the Titans line, referee Tim Allatt awarded the home side a penalty try to make it 12-0 and also yellow carded Roth’s tighthead Rikki Stout in the process.

Things got even worse for Rotherham moments later when they lost back five forward Lewis Wilson to what appeared to be a serious injury and fly half Joe Carlisle, although he would return for the second half.

Somehow however Roth managed to navigate their way through to half time without conceding any more points.

Rejuvenated after the half time oranges Roth came out for the second period with a spring in their step and a determination to leave a mark on the game.

And although Simon Humberstone knocked over a penalty on 46 minutes to extend Hull’s lead to 15-0, it did little to dampen Titans determination.

Within 10 minutes Roth had reduced their arrears to 15-10 following firstly a well taken penalty from Matt Minogue and then a terrific powerful drive culminating in replacement front rower Tom Richardson dotting down for a converted try.

The comeback was complete 11 minutes from time when another powerful drive from the Rotherham pack saw the home side once again struggle to legally keep it out and referee Allatt awarded a penalty try to give Titans a 17-15 lead.

It was always going to be a tight and nervous end to this top of the table clash.

With two minutes remaining on the clock, Hull, after failing to penetrate the Rotherham defence, pulled the ball out and opted for a cross field kick.

The risky option paid dividends for the home side as the ball bounced kindly and sat up for the chasing winger Michael Adlard to dot down for a dramatic win!

Rotherham will feel they did enough to win the game, but sometimes the bounce of the ball in tight games ultimately decides the winner.

Speaking after the match Titans Adam Byron said:

"That's the rollercoaster of rugby union, it is exactly what happens. Sometimes the bounce of the ball goes your way, sometimes it doesn't. We’ve had a few decisions in recent weeks that went our way, but today the bounce of the ball went Hull’s way.

"We were frustrated at half time but really proud of that second half. The boys went out and did exactly as they were asked and they showed great heart and managed the game well.

"In all honesty we were pretty unlucky not to come away with the win. Nevertheless our attitude remains the same; we are going to keep fighting the rest of this season and see where that takes us come mid-May."

Referee: Tim Allatt

Attendance: 550

Yellow Card: Stout (Titans), Boothman (Hull)

Titans: Richardson (T), Penalty Try, Minogue (1C, 1P)

Hull: Dean (T), Penalty Try, Adlard (T), Humberstone (1P)

Titans: 15 Matt Minogue, 21 George Tucker (Richardson 33) (Carlisle 41), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle (Tucker 34), 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Colin Quigley (Donkor 10) (Richardson 54), 2 Harry Newborn (Bergmanas 53), 27 Rikki Stout, 4 Matt Challinor (Newborn 78), 5 Lewis Wilson (Laxton 33), 6 Zak Poole (Capt.), 7 Matti Williams, 8 Kieran Curran.  

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 28 Keifer Laxton, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Tom Richardson, 22 Olly Fisher.

Hull: 15 Reece Dean, 14 Mike Adlard, 13 Iosefo Taunei Turaga, 12 Stephen Johnson, 11 Keane Naylor (Jobling 78), 10 Simon Humberstone (Capt.), 9 Harvey Harding, 1 Loma Kivalu (Beech 32) (Kivalu 71), 2 Mike Jobling (Jones 32) (Makaa'fi 65), 3 Ben Boothman, 4 Cameron Curry, 5 Liam Regardsoe, 6 Latu Makaa'fi (Hicks 34) (Dias 76), 7 Alistair Thomson, 8 Will Hall.

Replacements: 16 Robin Watts, 17 Tom Hicks, 18 Greg Jones, 19 Mike Dias, 20 Charlie Beech.

Photo Credit: Mike Inkley