Titans 37 Tynedale 7

Rotherham Titans recorded back-to-back victories with a hard-fought 37-7 win over a tenacious Tynedale outfit on a windy afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans 4 tries came way of a brace from Callum Bustin and one each for Corben Ollivent and Fraser Jones on debut, whilst Lloyd Hayes added 17 points from the tee.

The final score probably doesn’t do justice to Tynedale’s dogged and determined effort, but Rotherham raced out of the blocks to effectively wrap-up the game after 20 minutes, having scored four tries and secured the bonus point.

The home side crossed the whitewash as early as the second minute when Sam Boxhall and Harry Dunne were involved in getting the ball out to Corben Ollivent who raced in to dot down in the corner.

Within five minutes Roth added to their tally when Lloyd Hayes popped a lovely pass back inside to Corben Ollivent on the 22, he then made good ground taking play up to the line, before offloading to Callum Bustin in support for a nice team try.

There was time for Lloyd Hayes to knock over a penalty before Titans had their third try on 16 minutes.

Following a period of forward pressure inside the Tynedale 22, the ball came out to Ollivent who quickly shipped on to Hayes who again slipped a neat pass back inside to Fraser Jones; the Australian showed good footwork and desire to scramble over the line for a try on debut.

Moments later a rampant Rotherham secured the bonus point when Tynedale spilled the ball on the edge of the 22, after some very effective in-your-face pressure. Callum Bustin collected quickly and then threw a dummy before darting through unopposed to score under the posts.

Lloyd Hayes’ conversion gave Titans a 31-0 lead and the script was set for a landslide victory.

However, the visitors chose not to follow the script and pretty much dominated the remainder of the half as they set camp inside the Titans 22. However, massive credit must go to the home side as time and again they repelled the pressure on their own line to keep Tynedale scoreless in the first half.

The second period was a more even affair; however, had Roth finished the numerous chances created the final score would have been much wider, but that was not the case.

An early Lloyd Hayes penalty extended Roth’s advantage on 43 minutes, but it was Tynedale who scored the next try just after the hour mark when James Telford took a quick penalty and fed flanker Ben Bell who charged through to score.

Remarkably the only other score of the match came at the end when Hayes slotted over his third penalty of the game.

So whilst there were lots of positives for the home side, they’ll need to be more clinical in their next outing away to Wharfedale if they are going to make it three on the trot.

Speaking after the game Titans Adam Byron said:

“We were delighted with our efforts in the opening 20 minutes, that’s exactly what we’d asked from the boys; we went at them and scored lots of points and we couldn’t have asked for any more.

“We understand at National Two there are a lot of good teams; so when you give them possession they’re going to play and come right at you. However, I was delighted with the boy’s commitment in defence to keep them out in the first half.

“I have to be honest and say I was disappointed to lose the second half 7-6. We did create lots of opportunities in the second half, may four or five, but we left them out there and when we look back at those we’ll probably put our hands up and say we should have scored.

“Our line outs were much better, Matt Smith and the boys have put a lot of work in that area this week and so it was pleasing to see the improvement there.

“But overall when you come away from a game with a 5-point win you have to be happy, especially when you haven’t been perfect because that shows you are going in the right direction.”

Referee: Llyr Apgeraint-Roberts

Attendance: 250

Yellow Card: Poole (Titans)

Titans: Bustin (2T), Ollivent (T), Jones (T), Hayes (4C, 3P)

Tynedale:  Bell (T), Roue (1C)

Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Fraser Jones, 10 Corben Ollivent (Taylor 55), 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps (Stout 40), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Inman 51), 3 Gareth Denman (Rylance 23) (Denman 65), 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Marcus Payne (Kay 51), 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin (Payne 65).  

Replacements: 16 Louis Inman, 17 Danny Rylance, 27 Rikki Stout, 19 Rupert Kay, 20 Jack Taylor.

Tynedale: 15 Rob Parker (Batey 79), 14 Adam Todhunter (Forlow 55), 13 Ross Cooke, 12 Will Roue, 11 Seamus Hutton, 10 Jake Rodgers (Todhunter 58), 9 James Telford, 1 Angus White, 2 David Batey (Johnston53), 3 Oscar Caudle (Carmichael 52), 4 Chris Wearmouth (Capt.), 5 Graeme Dunn (Dodd 53), 6 Jonny Cousin (Nankivell 18), 7 Ben Bell, 8 Ben Blackburn.

Replacements: 16 Ralph Johnston, 17 Liam Carmichael, 18 Jonny Dodd, 19 Euan Forlow, 20 Will Nankivell.

Titans 50 Blaydon 3

Rotherham Titans got back to winning ways with an impressive 7-try performance to beat a spirited Blaydon side 50-3 on a sunny, but blustery afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans’ tries came way of a brace from Harry Dunne and one each for Sam Veall, Jack Bergmanas, Callum Bustin and another brace from Lloyd Hayes, who also added a further 15 point from the tee.

Titans raced into the lead as early as the 4th minutes as Lloyd Hayes interchanged passes with Jack Taylor before showing good strength and pace to dot down.

Blaydon’s only score of the game came on 12 minutes as scrum half John Clarkson knocked over a 3-pointer from close range.

After that it was pretty much all Rotherham as a minute later full back Sam Veall extended his sides lead with some quick thinking, as he picked up from the base of a ruck and then dived over for an opportunistic try.

Surprisingly, the home side for all their dominance had to wait until just before the half hour mark to add to their tally and surprisingly it was the first catch and drive try of the season for a pack renowned for scoring tries this way. On this occasion it was hooker Jack Bergmanas who dotted down near the corner.

There was just time before half time for Lloyd Hayes to add a penalty which sent the hosts in for the oranges with a 22-3 advantage.

The second half followed a similar pattern of Titans dominance; although at no stage did Blaydon allow the home side an easy ride.

Nine minutes in and centre Harry Dunne secured the bonus point when off first-phase play he received a pass from Kai Ramrattan, before eyeing a gap in the defence to crash through near the posts.

Five minutes later and that man Lloyd Hayes was in the thick of it again; following turnover ball Callum Bustin made good ground and then offloaded to Harry Dunne who in turn cut nicely back inside before sending in Hayes for his second try of the game in the corner.

Titans’ sixth try came 10 minutes later after good ground was made by Alastair Donkor and then Callum Bustin got his hands on the ball and showed great strength to power over.

The final try came way of an interception which saw Harry Dunne race in from 45 metres to put the cherry on top of an overall good performance.

Titans will look to build on their display ahead of next week’s visit of Tynedale to Clifton Lane. Of particular focus may be the line out, as it did not function as well as it could have done; but other than that the South Yorkshire outfit will have been delighted with their shift.

Speaking after the game head coach, Adam Byron said:

“We asked the boys to right some of the wrongs we had last week, do the basics well and try to keep the scoreboard ticking after being nilled in the second half last week and I was really pleased that they were able to do that.

“Lloyd Hayes was outstanding again today; if he’s playing well that means we are playing well as a team because we are creating space in that 13 channel. He’s getting his hands on the ball and he’s able to do what he does well and that’s open sides up.

“I was pleased with how our scrum went today and also the fact our pressure in defence caused the errors to stack up, which in turn led to some opportunities at scrum time.

“We are very aware our line out is not quite where we would like it to be right now, but that is something we will continue to work hard on going forwards; but all credit to the boys to score 50 points in a game is outstanding, especially when one of your set pieces hasn’t functioned as you would have liked.”

Referee: Alex Rose

Attendance: 250

Yellow Card: Clarkson (Tynedale)

Titans: Dunne (2T), Veall (T), Bergmanas (T), Bustin (T), Hayes (2T, 6C, P)

Blaydon: Clarkson (P)

Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 21 George Tucker, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Corben Ollivent, 9 Sam Boxhall (Ramrattan 47), 1 Charlie Capps (Donkor 50), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Inman 59), 27 Rikki Stout (Denman 50), 4 Zak Poole (Capt.), 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Marcus Payne (Bustin 50), 7 Rupert Kay (Payne 66), 8 Lewis Wilson.

Replacements: 16 Louis Inman, 17 Gareth Denman, 18 Alastair Donkor, 28 Callum Bustin, 20 Kai Ramrattan.

Blaydon: 15 Nathan Bailey, 14 Zac Thompson, 13 Fergus Simpson, 12 Alex Clark (Richardson 63), 11 James Cooney, 10 Daniel Marshall (Capt.), 9 John Clarkson (Dube 67), 1 Matthew Siddle (Laidler 37), 16 Danny Gray (Duffy 71), 0 Ralph Appleby (Turnbull 53), 4 Darren Barry, 5 Jack Inglis, 6 Will Varley, 7 Liam Wright, 8 Alex Charlton (Siddle 79).

Replacements: 18 Sam Laidler, 2 Kieran Duffy, 17 Adam Turnbull, 19 Thabo Dube, 23 Andrew Richardson.

Hull Ionians 27 Titans 22

Rotherham Titans suffered a disappointing 27-22 loss away to Hull Ionians on a sunny afternoon at Brantingham Park.

Sam Veall, Harry Dunne and Corben Ollivent all crossed the whitewash for Rotherham, with Lloyd Hayes adding 7 points from the tee.

However, despite leading 22-21 at the break Titans were unable to add to their tally despite dominating for much of the second half.

Having three players yellow carded in the second forty didn’t help the South Yorkshire sides cause and ultimately finishing the game with 13 players proved a bit too much to overcome.

Rotherham will look back on this one and wonder how the win slipped from their grasp following such a dominant second half display.

In truth, a number of handling errors and at times an unreliable line-out in crucial field positions meant Roth would pay the price for a bad day at the office.

Credit must also go out to Ionians; their ability to weather the Titans storm for a full 30 minutes in the second half enabled them to stay in the game, before going on to secure their first ever competitive victory over Rotherham.

The first half of this absorbing contest resembled a basketball game as each team took it in turn to score.

Inside the opening 10 minutes following a Sam Wilson try for the hosts Titans hit back through Sam Veall. The full back showed great vision and pace as he collected a pass around 35 metres out before dancing his way through the Hull defence to dot down next to the sticks.

Ionians on their next visit into the Roth 22 came away with points again when former Titans’ scrum half Sam Pocklington sniped over from close range.

However, a Lloyd Hayes penalty was quickly followed by his partner in the centres Harry Dunne, he scored out wide after a period of possession sucked in the Hull defence to leave an overlap to give Rotherham a 15-14 lead.

The lead lasted only a few minutes as the home side added a third try through winger Sam Wilson; but as in true basketball fashion Titans went down the other end of the pitch and regained the advantage when fly half Corben Ollivent showed good awareness to thread his way through the defence to score next to the posts.

Lloyd Hayes’ conversion ended the first half scoring and Roth went in for the half time oranges with a slender 22-21 advantage.

The second half was a bizarre 40 minutes of rugby and the game should have been put to bed by Roth following all the territory and possession they enjoyed deep inside the Hull half.

However, the home side weathered the Titans storm and came back to win the game following two Lewis Minikin penalties on 78 minutes and then 3 minutes into added time.

Titans will now lick their wounds and then get back on the training field and work even harder to put things right, starting with next week’s home game against Blaydon.

Speaking immediately after the game a disappointed Adam Byron said:

“We are devastated to have lost that one; we went in at half time in front and we came out for the second half confident we would go on to get the win.

“We knew we’d made some errors in the first half and we corrected those defensive errors, but with the ball in hand we weren’t just up to it and we weren’t good enough today.

“The pleasing thing in the first half is we dealt with things that were happening in the game. You can’t rely on half time talks to sort things out; we struggled with certain aspects in the first half and we dealt with them on the pitch, our leaders stepped up and we dealt with it.

“The frustration is the same thing happened in the second half and our attack looked poor at times and we made too many errors.”

Referee: Tim Allatt

Attendance: 353

Yellow Card: Denman, Hayes, Dunne (Titans)

Titans: Veall (T), Dunne (T), Ollivent (T), Hayes (2C, P)

Hull Ionians: Wilson (2T), Pocklington (T), Minikin (3C, 2P)

Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 21 George Tucker (Stout 46), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Corben Ollivent, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps (Rylance 28) (Capps 60), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Inman 60), 3 Gareth Denman (Tucker 56) (Ramrattan 66), 4 Zak Poole (Capt.), 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Rupert Kay (Bustin 56), 7 Lewis Wilson, 8 Callum Bustin (Payne 30). 

Replacements: 16 Louis Inman, 27 Rikki Stout, 18 Danny Rylance, 19 Marcus Payne, 20 Kai Ramrattan.

Hull Ionians: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Sam Wilson, 13 Lewis Minikin, 12 Josh Britton, 11 Nathan Hill, 10 Ben Smith, 9 Sam Pocklington (Kirk 74), 1 Chris Morton (Bell 52), 2 Ben Stephenson, 3 Ben Bell (Laverick 35) (Morton 71), 4 Joe Makin, 5 Tyler Heelas (Campbell 52), 6 Allan Hudson (Thompson 55), 7 James Sanderson (Capt.) (Powell 69), 8 George Mewburn. 

Replacements: 16 Dave Laverick, 17 Alex Campbell, 18 Declan Thompson, 25 Lucas Powell, 20 Charlie Kirk.

Titans 67 Harrogate 15

Rotherham Titans ran out 67-15 winners over a spirited Harrogate side, as they started their Nat 2 North campaign in impressive fashion on a warm afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans outscored their county rivals by 9 tries to 2 with a brace of tries from Lloyd Hayes and one each for Jack Taylor, Jack Hedley, Gareth Denman, Zak Poole, Louis Inman, Sam Boxhall and Kai Ramrattan. Lloyd Hayes also added 22 points from the tee to cap off an outstanding individual performance.

Ahead of the game a minute's silence was impeccably observed as a mark of respect for William Barrack, Harrogate Club President, who sadly died last week.

Titans’ first half performance was outstanding; it was full of energy and dynamism and it saw them score 6 tries to a solitary penalty for the visitors.

Lloyd Hayes jinked back inside as early as the 3rd minutes to set the home side on their way and then dusted himself down to convert; he added a 3-pointer shortly after to race the Titans into a 10-0 lead after 8 minutes.

Within the next 10 minutes Rotherham’s wingers Jack Taylor and Jack Hedley both dotted down on debut. Corben Ollivent was instrumental in setting up the former with a nice break; then a quick tap from scrum half Sam Boxhall led to the latter. In between Rory MacNab sandwiched a 3-pointer in for the visitors.

Lloyd Hayes added a second penalty for Titans early into the second quarter, before a rampant home side scored a three further tries inside the final 7 minutes of the half.

Gareth Denman, on his return to his home club, was the next to cross the whitewash and although the tighthead may feel he went in from 40 metres, in actual fact it was more like 15 – it was still no mean feat from the local hero who showed great power to get over.

That man Hayes just wouldn’t go away and up he popped again shortly after to dot down for his second try. He and Sam Veall interchanged passes before the centre danced though for a nice score.

The final play of the half saw Titans score their only set piece try of the game. From a line out close to the line skipper Zak Poole broke off the maul to charge in near the corner.

The half time oranges would have tasted very sweet indeed.

It appeared as if Rotherham’s first half dominance would continue throughout the second, as replacement hooker Louis Inman showed a good appetite to crash over for a try on debut, following a nice switch in play from the backs.

However, credit must be afforded Harrogate, as they showed impressive spirit and determination to keep going and indeed take it to the Titans.

A 20-minute spell followed whereby the visitors scored two tries through hooker Jacob Garrett and fly half Tom Steene; the latter came via an interception, but they all count.

Rotherham did however manage to regroup late on and finish off with another couple of tries from Sam Boxhall and replacement scrum half Kai Ramrattan – another player enjoying his debut with a try.

So whilst Rotherham may face stiffer test this season, starting with an away trip to top side Hull Ionians next week, they will be overjoyed to kick-off their campaign with such an enterprising performance.

Speaking after the game Titans Adam Byron said:

"It is great to score nine tries in any game, but it’s how we created those tries that is the pleasing thing.

"We stuck to our process and made sure we finished things off when we got the opportunity.

"Lloyd Hayes was different class today with his footwork and his understanding of the game. He played really well.

"The new team has had some game time together and we will put our hands up and say the pre-season games were tough. We defended a lot and didn't get chance to play much, so it has been really pleasing to get the ball in hand and show what we can do."

Referee: Matt Sharpe

Attendance: 250

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Taylor (T), Hedley (T), Denman (T), Poole (T), Inman (T), Boxhall (T), Ramrattan (T), Hayes (2T, 8C, 2P)

Harrogate: Garrett (T), Steene (T), MacNab (1C, 1P)

Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Jack Hedley (Bustin 77), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor (Ramrattan 17), 10 Corben Ollivent (Taylor 69), 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps (Rylance 40), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Inman 41), 3 Gareth Denman (Stout 40), 4 Zak Poole (Capt.) (Allan 45), 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Rupert Kay 7 Lewis Wilson, 8 Callum Bustin (Poole 60). 

Replacements: 16 Louis Inman, 27 Rikki Stout, 18 Danny Rylance, 19 Lewis Allan, 20 Kai Ramrattan.   

Harrogate: 15 Rory MacNab, 14 Oliver Pearson, 13 Jack Kennell, 12 Jordan Cummings (Raubitschek 54), 11 Will Yates, 10 Tom Steene, 9 Alex Ibbotson (Fox 69), 1 Seifeldin Elsayed, 2 Jacob Garrett (Derbyshire 54) (Garrett 69), 3 Tom Baxter, 4 Tomas Phipps (Booth 50), 5 Sam Brady (Capt.), 6 Cameron Breen (Jones 35), 7 Will Hill, 8 Thomas Spencer-Jones.

Replacements: 18 Henry Derbyshire, 16 Gregory Jones, 19 Kurtis Booth, 21 Ben Raubitschek, 20 Sam Fox.

Photo Credit: Gareth Siddons