Nottingham 38 Titans 5

Rotherham Titans finished off their Championship season with a disappointing 38-5 defeat to Nottingham under the lights at Lady Bay.

The final-day defeat brought a long, difficult season to a close for the South Yorkshire side which saw them win just 2 Championship games and as a result they will ply their trade in National Division One next year, as they aim to bounce back at the first attempt.

The game itself had few positives for Rotherham as the home side played with lots of energy and zest, as they looked to put on a show for their supporters in their final home game of the season.

Inside the opening 15 minutes Nottingham raced into a 14-0 lead after two converted tries from centre Gearoid Lyons and winger Jack Spittle.

The second quarter of the game was Titans best as they enjoyed significant periods of dominance, particularly at scrum time. During this spell Titans got on the scoreboard when a powerful driving maul was finished off by back rower Tom Burns on 21 minutes.

However, despite Titans worthy efforts to add to their tally in the first half, the hosts defended with great resilience to keep them at bay. Indeed just before the break it was the Green and Whites that scored next when Tiff Eden knocked over a penalty from just outside the Titans 22.

Coming out for the second half and trailing 17-5, the Titans needed to score first if they were to give themselves a chance of ending the season with a victory.

Those hopes were dashed within 4 minutes when Nottingham centre Will Millett darted through for his side’s third try of the match.

From then on a confident home side controlled the game and added two further tries through prop Tom West and late on through former Titan Ben Morris.

A reflective Nic Rouse commented post-match, “The game kind of summed up our season; we looked like the side that played on Tuesday night, but fair play to them they controlled the game and stopped us playing. We did have a bit of dominance in the first half but we didn’t make the most of that period.

“We were still in the game at half time, but unfortunately they scored early in the second half and it was difficult for us thereafter. It was their last home game and they wanted to send some boys off with the win before they move on. They were really up for it in front of their fans the way we were against Carnegie and they deserved the win.

“It was my last game and it would have been great to go out with the win, but that wasn’t to be. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Rotherham and have met some great people at the club and I’ll take away a lot of fond memories. The results didn’t go our way, but I think since Christmas the boys have made a good fist of it.”

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

Attendance: 1,055

Yellow Card: Hooper (Nottingham), Foster & Calladine (Titans)

Titans: Burns (T)

Nottingham: Lyons (T), Spittle (T), Millett (T), West (T), Morris (T), Eden (4C, P), Hakalo (1C)

Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Drew Cheshire, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Lee Millar, 11 Jake Henry (Foley 52), 10 Caolan Ryan (Hamilton 67), 9 Rhodri Davies (Vieira 67), 1 Toby Williams (Tom Williams 56), 2 Luke Cole (Dolly 64), 3 Andrew Foster (Palmer 75), 4 Rob Louw, 5 Adam Peters, 6 Tom Burns, 7 Dan Grange, 8 Tom Calladine (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Nic Dolly, 17 Tom Williams, 18 Brandon Palmer, 19 Joe Barker, 20 Ben Foley, 21 Wesley Hamilton, 22 Francisco Vieira.

Nottingham: 15 Sean Scanlon, 14 Jack Spittle, 13 Will Millett, 12 Gearoid Lyons, 11 Billy Robinson, 10 Tiff Eden (Hakalo 56), 9 Darryl Veenendaal (McConnell 64), 1 Tom West (Sio 61), 2 Jimmy Stevens (Brownlie 55), 3 Ben Hooper (Hall 52), 4 Tim Cardall, 5 Ben Morris, 6 Jordan Coghlan (Cecil 67), 7 Matt Everard (Capt.), 8 Josh Poullet (Buckley 55).

Replacements: 16 Ben Brownlie, 17 Aniseko Sio, 18 James Hall, 19 Seb Cecil, 20 Shane Buckley, 21 Murray McConnell, 22 Vili Hakalo.

Titans 30 Yorkshire Carnegie 26

Rotherham Titans mounted a stunning late comeback to snatch a thrilling 30-26 victory over county rivals Yorkshire Carnegie at a warm and sunny Clifton Lane.

Trailing 19-6 with 20 minutes to go Rotherham showed tremendous spirit and character to score two tries through Drew Cheshire and one from Jake Henry, with both Caolan Ryan and Lee Millar adding vital points from the boot to seal a well-deserved, dramatic victory.

The match itself started with the visitors in the ascendancy as they looked to put tempo into the game. Their early endeavours were reward inside four minutes as a powerful driving maul from a line out saw Carnegie hooker Mike Mayhew crash over from the tail. Stevie McColl bagged the impressive extras from out wide to give his side a 7-0 lead.

Carnegie continued to have the upper hand as the game progressed, but a spirited and resilient Titans defence repeatedly held out their Yorkshire rivals, often close to their own line.

Slowly Rotherham began to impose themselves on the game and just after the half hour mark Caolan Ryan struck a terrific long-range penalty to reduce his side’s arrears to 7-3.

Just before the break Titans were reduced to 14 players after lock forward Matt Postlethwaite received a yellow card for his part in a repeated set of penalties.

At the beginning of the second period Carnegie quickly exploited the man advantage as their backs moves the ball effectively across the line for winger Louis Brown to score in the corner. McColl again impressed with his successful conversion from out wide.

Titans’ Lee Millar narrowed the deficit on 47 minutes with a long-range penalty and 4 minutes later almost did the same again from 55 metres. This time however the ball agonising came up just short of the target.

Moments later Millar received what many in the ground thought a harsh yellow card for a ‘late tackle’ on Carnegie fly half Pete Lucock. Again the visitors quickly exploited their numerical advantage as hooker Mike Mayhew crashed over for his second dot down of the match. McColl missed the extras from out wide the leave Carnegie 19-6 to the good.

With just under 20 minutes remaining Titans needed some inspiration and that inspiration arrived from winger Drew Cheshire who collected the ball on the right flank before chipping ahead and outpacing Oli Fox to collect and dot down for a marvellous try. Caolan Ryan tagged over the extras from the touchline.

Five minutes later and Rotherham took the lead for the first time in the match when left winger Jake Henry collected and powerfully barged his way through to narrowly score in the corner under massive Carnegie pressure. Ryan bagged the extras impressively from the left touchline to nudge his side into a 20-19 lead.

With Titans now in full flow and the faithful from the Shed passionately egging their side on Cheshire scored a wonderful try as he dummied a pass before cutting back inside to score next to the sticks. Ryan knocked over the straightforward conversion to put Rotherham 27-19 up.

On 76 minutes Lee Millar again demonstrated his prowess with the boot as he nailed another impressive long-range penalty to stretch his sides lead to 30-19.

With Yorkshire pride at stake the visitors set the game up for a nervy finish after scrum half Oli Fox crossed the whitewash for his sides bonus point try. McColl’s extras reduced Carnegie’s arrears to 30-16.

Carnegie desperately pushed forward in their attempts to steal a victory but the men from Clifton Lane held on resolutely to earn a thrilling victory.

Commenting post-match Titans Nic Rouse explained, “This week has been the toughest week of the year for me as a coach and in terms of preparing the boys; at times we only had 12 boys training and we had to play football. 

“The numbers were so low in training it was difficult and our best session was the team run on Friday. We only had four boys on the bench today and one of those wasn’t really fit enough to go on, so effectively we only had 3 replacements.

“In the game we wanted to play some rugby against Carnegie and we wanted to take a bit of sting out of them. They rarely kick the ball so we needed to be good defensively and I was massively impressed with the boys in that area. Our patience and discipline was very good and I am very proud of the lads.”

Referee: Dean Richards
Attendance: 681
Yellow Card: Postlethwaite & Millar (Titans), Mitchell (Carnegie)
Titans: Cheshire (2T), Henry (T), Ryan (P, 3C), Millar (2P)
Carnegie: Mayhew (2T), Brown (T), Fox (T), McColl (3C)

Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Drew Cheshire, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Lee Millar, 11 Jake Henry, 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Francisco Vieira, 1 Tom Williams, 2 Luke Cole (Dolly 69), 3 Andrew Foster (Palmer76), 4 Rob Louw, 5 Matt Postlethwaite, 6 Tom Burns, 7 Adam Peters, 8 Tom Calladine (Capt.).
 
Replacements: 16 Nic Dolly, 17 Brandon Palmer, 18 Dan Grange, 19 Wesley Hamilton, 20 Joe Barker, 21 James Lasis, 22 Ben Foley. 

Yorkshire Carnegie: 15 Stevie McColl, 14 Tom Bullough, 13 Chris Elder, 12 Andy Forsyth, 11 Louis Brown (Dunne 60) (Bryce 66), 10 Pete Lucock (Davey 58), 9 Oli Fox, 1 James Thraves (Beech 60), 2 Mike Mayhew (Newborn 76), 3 Craig Mitchell, 4 Jack Whetton, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Ben West, 7 Richard Mayhew, 8 Richard Beck (Bainbridge 58).

Replacement: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Charlie Beech, 18 Kevin Bryce, 19 Elliot Ward, 20 Josh Bainbridge, 21 Harry Davey, 22 Harry Dunne.

London Scottish 49 Titans 14

Rotherham Titans suffered an awful day at the office as an uninspired performance saw them get punished by a rampant London Scottish side in a crushing 49-14 defeat.

The Exiles ran in seven tries to Titans two, with the South Yorkshire side lacking the urgency and intensity which has been their trademark since the turn of the year.

Rotherham trailed from the off as Scottish raced into an 18-0 lead inside the opening 24 minutes, with tries from centre Ben Mosses and prop forward Dino Waldren; veteran fly half Jake Sharp added 2 penalties and a conversion.

Rotherham eventually worked themselves into the game and were rewarded for their efforts when tight head Andrew Foster crashed over from close range after a period of forward dominance from the Titans pack. Ryan added the extras.

Minutes later however the home side added a third try when prop Waldren barged his way over for his second dot down of the game, Sharp’s successful conversion extended the Exiles lead to 25-7.

As half time approached Titans enjoyed what would be their best period of the game as they camped themselves close to the hosts line. The Scottish scrum buckled on four separate occasions with each time referee Sara Cox awarding Titans a penalty. 

Eventually the referee awarded Rotherham a penalty try, but surprisingly no yellow card followed. Nevertheless Titans went in at the break trailing 25-14 and somewhat rejuvenated for the second 40.

It was vital Rotherham scored the first points after the restart if a comeback was to be a realistic option; unfortunately for them this wasn’t the case as on 47 minutes big second rower Tjiuee Uanivi bulldozed his way over for his sides bonus point try.

Galvanised and full of confidence, Scottish upped their game further and pretty much dominated proceedings for the rest of the match as they ran in another three tries through full back Joe Luca Smith, left winger Charlie Ingall and right winger Matt Williams to secure a deserved and convincing victory.

Speaking after the game Titans Nic Rouse explained, “Today’s performance wasn’t a reflection of how we’ve been since January; it was pretty poor today. I said before the game we need to take them on and there was a big opportunity to take them on up front and it took us until the 25th minute before we got our first penalty. We talk about it beforehand and then we don’t do it. 

“We came into the game confident of getting the result and the way we have been playing the last few weeks against the top sides gave us the confidence to come here and get the win, but I don’t think we really turned up and that’s very disappointing.

“We had good preparation coming into this one and I know the boys are going to be disappointed because they’ll feel they have let themselves down and that will hurt them. I think we needed to score first after the break, but we didn’t and we weren’t great today to be honest.

“Maybe the season has taken its toll on us with the small squad we have, but that’s an excuse and I don’t want to start looking for excuses. 

“I don’t really want to have a go at the boys because they have worked really hard for me and I back them 100%. We now need to pick ourselves up for a big game next week against Carnegie, because if we turn up for that one the way we did today then we are going to get a hiding.

“But we are back at home for a massive Yorkshire derby and we want to put in a performance that we and our supporters can be proud of.”

Referee: Sara Cox
Attendance: 1,330
Yellow Card: Henry (Titans)
Titans: Foster (T), Pen Try, Ryan (1C)
London Scottish: Waldren (2T), Mosses (T), Uanivi (T), Smith (T), Ingall (T), Williams (T), Sharp (2P, 4C),
 
Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Ben Foley (Millar H-T), 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Joe Barker (Hamilton 58), 11 Jake Henry, 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Rhodri Davies (Vieira 65), 1 Toby Williams (Tom Williams 60), 2 Luke Cole, 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Rob Louw, 5 Adam Peters, 6 Dan Grange (Burns H-T), 7 Charlie Maddison, 8 Tom Calladine (Capt.).
 
Replacements: 16 Nic Dolly, 17 Tom Williams, 18 Brandon Palmer, 19 Tom Burns, 20 Wesley Hamilton, 21 Lee Millar, 22 Francisco Vieira.
 
London Scottish: 15 Joe Luca Smith, 14 Matt Williams, 13 Ross Neal, 12 Ben Mosses, 11 Charlie Ingall, 10 Jake Sharp (Atkins 61), 9 Alex Walker (Hoadley 55), 1 Derrick Appiah (Harris 55), 2 Isaac Miller (George 55), 3 Dino Waldren (Cringle 55), 4 Ed Milne, 5 Tjiuee Uanivi (Curry 49), 6 Joe Atkinson, 7 Chris Walker (Eliet 69), 8 Danny Kenny (Capt.).
 
Replacements: 16 Dan George, 17 Jonny Harris, 18 Phil Cringle, 19 Oli Curry, 20 Matt Eliet, 21 Ed Hoadley, 22 Jacob Atkins.