Titans 18 Ealing 23

Rotherham Titans put in their best display of the season before ultimately just falling short as Ealing ran out 23-18 winners at Clifton Lane.

Titans did however collect a well-deserved bonus point against the high-flyers from West London and on another day may well have secured all four points for the win.

It was a difficult task to select Titans man-of-the-match with so many individuals staking a claim for the accolade, but scrum half Will Porter couldn’t have been far away as he scored 2 tries to cap off a fine individual performance.

The game started with Ealing showing just why they are at the top end of the division as they moved the ball quickly through the backs and their forwards demonstrating good power and aggression.

Indeed it took the visitors just 5 minutes to breach the whitewash as second rower Harry Casson barged his way over from close range, following some fine ball retention from his pack mates. Shane O’Leary tagged over the extras to give his side an early 7-0 lead.

Rotherham however had an energetic look about them and their intensity combined with good line speed repeatedly stopped the Trailfinders penetrating the gain line. Titans were rewarded for their endeavours on 11 minutes when fly half Caolan Ryan knocked over a fine penalty in the difficult blustery conditions.

Better was to come for Rotherham moments later when turnover ball in midfield was quickly fed out wide to Drew Cheshire. He made 30 plus metres downfield before offloading back inside to Will Porter who in turn glided over to put nudge Titans ahead. Ryan’s conversion from almost in front of the sticks made it 10-7 to the hosts.

In this entertaining encounter both sides held little back in the physicality department and credit to both teams as each were willing to play some fine rugby at every given opportunity.

Ealing nosed ahead again just after the half hour mark as Championship veteran Mark Bright was on hand to crash over the Titans line for an unconverted try, following an Ealing scrum five metres out.

Rotherham however continued to perform at a high standard and thus put pressure on their opponents. During this period and just two minutes before half time Caolan Ryan added his second penalty of the match to edge the home side 13-12 up.

Unfortunately for Rotherham with the last play of the half Ealing scored a thrilling breakaway try through Will Harries following a terrific break downfield from full back Luke Daniels.

Undeterred Rotherham came out for the second half in determined fashion as their intensity and work-rate continued to impress. However, it was replacement fly half for Ealing, Peter Lydon, who scored next with a fine penalty kick to stretch his side’s advantage to 20-13.

On the hour mark however Rotherham came storming back as first Drew Cheshire found some space down the right hand side before finding Yiannis Loizias in support. The outside centre showed great pace before being tackled close to the line, but as he was tackled he popped the ball to Porter who collected nicely to dash over for his second try. Unfortunately Ryan missed the difficult conversion from out wide which would have levelled the scores.

In the closing stages both sides pressed with great intent, but two minutes into injury time it was Lydon who knocked over his second penalty to give Ealing a 23-18 lead and the match.

Speaking post-game Titans Andy Key explained, “We can be pleased with our performance and we’ve been working on that for the last few weeks in terms of building on our performances; but we lost the game. We know there was a couple of opportunities out there that we missed, including conceding a silly try on the stroke of half time and that’s the thing with these better sides, you make one mistake and they take advantage of it.

“However, I can only applaud the performance from our guys and how deep they dug in during the game. They now know that is the minimum standard that we have to maintain in every game going forward.

“But it wasn’t just about our defence today, which I thought was very good and you can see the massive improvement we’ve made in that area under Dave Ellis, but we also created some outstanding opportunities. The hard work the boys put in created those chances, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to just finish them off.”

Referee: Simon Harding

Attendance: 714

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Porter (2T), Ryan (2P, C)

Ealing: Cason (T), Bright (T), Harries (T), O’Leary (1C), Lydon (2P)

Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Drew Cheshire, 13 Yiannis Loizias, 12 Luke Peters, 11 Jake Henry, 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Will Porter, 1 Toby Williams, 2 Luke Cole (Maddison 52), 3 Matt Shields (Palmer HIA 52-66) (Palmer 79), 4 Rob Louw (Postlethwaite 69), 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Adam Peters, 7 Tom Calladine (Capt.), 8 Tom Burns (Willis 47).

Replacements: 16 Charlie Maddison, 17 Brandon Palmer, 18 Matt Postlethwaite, 19 Tom Willis, 20 Ben Foley, 21 Francisco Vieira, 22 Lee Millar.

Ealing Trailfinders: 15 Luke Daniels, 14 James Cordy Redden, 13 Piers O’Conor, 12 Joe Munro, 11 Will Harries, 10 Shane O’Leary (Lydon 49), 9 Grayson Hart (Carter 69), 1 Will Davis (Gibbons 58), 2 Alun Walker, 3 Lewis Thiede (Rodman 62), 4 Harry Casson (Curry 58), 5 Barney Maddison, 6 Rayn Smid, 7 Dan Temm (Allen 71), 8 Mark Bright (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Matt Cornish, 17 James Gibbons, 18 Sam Rodman, 19 Oli Curry, 20 Morgan Allen, 21 Luke Carter, 22 Peter Lydon.

Richmond 35 Titans 5

Rotherham Titans suffered a disappointing defeat to Richmond in round 2 of the British & Irish Cup, as they went down 35-5 at the Athletic Ground.

The defeat will be a difficult one to take for the South Yorkshire side after they totally dominated the opening 30 minutes of the match, much of which was spent camped in the hosts 22.

And although Rotherham winger Jamie Cooke scored a good try on 11 minutes, which allowed him to demonstrate impressive speed and clinical finishing, Titans ultimately will be disappointed they were unable to add to their tally during this dominant 30 minute spell.

Indeed, had they taken only half the opportunities created during this period, the final outcome would likely have been very different!

However, credit must be given to the hosts as they resolutely defended wave after wave of Titans pressure. The intensity and effort of the Richmond defence is to be applauded and ultimately this set the platform for victory.

As the game went into the final 10 minutes of the first half, Richmond finally escaped from their own 22 and worked the ball downfield into Titans territory. A period of forward pressure ensued as the hosts crept ever closer to the Titans line.

However, despite some good initial defensive work from the Titans close to their line, livewire scrum half Rhodri Adamson was alert enough to spot a gap in the Titans defence to dive over from the base of a ruck. Rob Kirby converted to give the hosts a 7-5 lead on 35 minutes.

Titans were probably still stunned when they came out for the second half and no doubt Richmond were buoyed by their late success in the first period.

Within 10 minutes of a sloppy restart, Rotherham found themselves 21-5 down following tries from winger Jono Woodward and fly half James Swan, both of which were converted by Kirby.

Rotherham were now rocked and the hosts took total control of the game as two more converted tries were added either side of the hour mark from flanker Toby Saysell and replacement front row forward Ross Grimstone.

Titans did muster a late flurry, but ultimately it was too little too late and the visitors were left to ponder the what ifs on the journey back up the M1.

Post-match Titans Andy Key reflected, “I was pleased with the opening 30 minutes of the game, we scored a good try and we applied the right sort of pressure in the right areas of the field. Our whole pressure, whether it was in attack or defence was outstanding and we stopped them playing which was very pleasing.

“The only disappointment in that opening 30 minutes was the amount of time we spent in their half and their 22 and we didn’t convert it into even more points. But I can’t fault what we did, we had a game plan to go in against them and we executed that reasonably well, not always as we’d have liked to have done, but to be honest we did enough to know we could have won this game.

“There was a 12 minute period just before half time and then just after the break where unfortunately we conceded three tries and by conceding those tries we gave ourselves too much to do. Then all of a sudden we’re looking down the barrel at 21-5 which was really tough for us to take at that time.”

Referee: Mike Hudson

Attendance: 623

Yellow Card: Tarrant (Richmond), Maddison (Titans)

Titans: Cooke (T)

Richmond: Adamson (T), Woodward (T), Swan (T), Saysell (T), Grimstone (T), Kirby (5C)

Titans: 15 Ben Foley, 14 Wesley Hamilton (Millar 49), 13 Yiannis Loizias, 12 Joe Barker (Capt.) (Vieira 68) (Murphy 76), 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Will Porter, 1 Tom Williams (Foster 73), 2 Jonny Murphy (Maddison 50), 3 Brandon Palmer (Pope 59), 4 James Lasis (Postlethwaite 50), 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Tom Willis, 7 Adam Peters, 8 Tom Burns (Calladine 65).

Replacements: 16 Charlie Maddison, 17 Jake Pope, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Matt Postlethwaite, 20 Tom Calladine, 21 Francisco Vieira 22 Lee Millar.

Richmond: 15 Rob Kirby, 14 Jono Woodward, 13 Cameron Mitchell, 12 Ronnie McLean, 11 Jordan Simpson-Hefft (Freeman 61), 10 James Swan (Gabbitass 51), 9 Rhodri Adamson (Grant 65), 1 Jeremy Cunnew (Goodrick-Clarke 49), 2 Jason Phipps (Grimstone 49), 3 Craig Trenier (Tarrant 49), 4 Will Warden (Crawford 65), 5 Alex Humfrey, 6 Jesse Liston (Trenier 76), 7 Toby Saysell, 8 Jake Parker.

Replacements: 16 Ross Grimstone, 17 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 18 Max Crawford, 19 Callum Grant, 20 Freddie Gabbitass, 21 Martin Freeman, 22 Joe Tarrant.

Titans 28 Connacht Eagles 23

Rotherham Titans started their British & Irish Cup campaign in winning fashion as they beat Connacht Eagles 28-23 in an entertaining encounter at Clifton Lane.

Following an indifferent first half from the Titans which saw them trail at the break 23-10, they stormed back in impressive style to nil the Eagles in the second half to run out worthy winners.

In a lively opening 10 minutes there was little to choose between the sides as Connacht’s Luke Carty and Titans’ Caolan Ryan traded penalties.

However, as the first quarter elapsed the visitors scored the first try of the game; good work at the line out saw the ball arrive with Connacht’s big number 6 Naulia Dawai who crashed over menacingly. Carty tagged over the extras.

Back came Rotherham though as they tried to put some intensity into their performance. From a line out close to the visitors’ line, the Titans pack collaborated to drive forward with real urgency. Charlie Maddison was on hand from the tail of the maul to dive over for a good pack try. Ryan levelled the game at 10 apiece with a neatly taken conversion.

Rotherham then appeared to ‘switch-off’ which allowed the Eagles to take advantage and following some forward pressure close to the titans line, the ball was fed out wide for hooker Dave Heffernan to dive over in the corner. Carty stuck a marvellous conversion from the touchline to put the visitors 17-10 ahead.

As the first half drew to a close Connacht began to enjoy some dominance which forced Rotherham into conceding a number of penalties. From two such misdemeanours in injury time fly half Carty slotted over two further successful kicks to draw the half to an end.

Rotherham however came out for the second period with an urgency scarcely seen in the first 40. Titans raised the tempo of their work which saw the visitors repeatedly forced onto the back foot.

Eventually on 54 minutes and following a dominant period from the home pack, the ball arrived with winger Ben Foley who somehow managed to leap over a number of Connacht defenders to dot down in the corner for an unconverted try.

The momentum had now shifted massively in Rotherham’s favour as they continued to power forward. Titans’ work-rate was rewarded on the hour mark when man-of-the-match candidate Tom Burns powered over following some great mauling from his pack-mates. Ryan’s conversion drew the host’s to within a point at 22-23.

Spurred on Rotherham went in search of their first win of the season. Now it was the visitors turn to start racking up the penalty count. From such a penalty Titans nosed ahead for the first time in the game when Caolan Ryan calmly slotted over on 71 minutes.

Rotherham impressed during the latter stages as they managed the game well without panicking as Connacht attempted to run the ball whenever possible.

The game was sealed in the eight minute of injury time when Ryan stepped up to knock over his third successful penalty of the match and when referee Elgan Williams blew for time there was huge joy and relief all around Clifton Lane.

Commenting post-match Titans Andy Key explained, “I’m delighted to get our first win of the season, but I’m more delighted for the boys. We facilitate the process of actually putting them into positions and we help to make them better players, but at the end of the day they have to prove that to themselves and the main area to do that is on a match day.

“But I thought today our composure and the way we reacted to a poor first half performance and to come back in the way we did was very good, especially in how we controlled the final 10 minutes.

“Tom Burns had a very good game, he set a good target and he showed a never-say-die attitude. His leg drive into contact to make sure we could get every yard possible was outstanding.

“I was also massively impressed with the two lads from Wasps who came in this week. Both Will Porter and Tom Willis showed there’s some great young talent out there.

“Will controlled things at the base and he kept the tempo high when we needed it to be and he got to the breakdown early and distributed the ball well. Then when Tom came on he only knows one direction and he set a good platform. So I was really pleased with those two boys.”

Referee: Elgan Williams

Attendance: 417

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Maddison (T), Foley (T), Burns (T), Ryan (2C, 3P),

Connacht: Dawai (T), Heffernan (T), Carty (2C, 3P)

Titans: 15 Ben Foley (Cooke 70), 14 Wesley Hamilton, 13 Yiannis Loizias, 12 Luke Peters, 11 Drew Cheshire, 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Francisco Vieira (Porter h-t), 1 Tom Williams (Opedo 68), 2 Charlie Maddison (Capt.) (Murphy 70), 3 Andrew Foster (Palmer h-t), 4 Rob Louw, 5 Guy Borrowdale (Willis 52), 6 Matt Postlethwaite, 7 Adam Peters, 8 Tom Burns.

Replacements: 16 Jonny Murphy, 17 Brandon Palmer, 18 Nathaniel Opedo, 19 Tom Willis, 20 Will Porter, 21 Lee Millar 22 Jamie Cooke.

Connacht Eagles: 15 Matthew Byrne, 14 Niyi Adeolokun (Leavy h-t), 13 Stacey Ili, 12 Kieran Joyce, 11 Colm de Buitléar, 10 Luke Carty, 9 Conor McKeon (Kerins 70), 1 Dominic Robertson-McCoy, 2 Dave Heffernan, 3 JP Cooney (Kenny 51), 4 Gavin Thornbury (Murray 68), 5 Peter Claffey, 6 Naulia Dawai (O’Toole 70), 7 Paul Boyle, 8 Harley Fox (Huxford 65).

Replacements: 16 Pat O’Toole, 17 Conor Kenny, 18 Niall Murray, 19 Cian Huxford, 20 Stephen Kerins, 21 Morgan Codyre, 22 Adam Leavy.

Bedford 34 Titans 14

Rotherham Titans put in a much improved performance against Bedford Blues before ultimately going down 34-14 at Goldington Road.

Overall Rotherham had the lion’s share of territory and possession, particularly in the first half where they would have been disappointed to go in at the break pointless after such a dominant display.

Titans’ forwards impressed hugely as they drove the Blues backwards on numerous occasions, but unfortunately for them they were unable to turn that pressure into points.

Bedford however gave Rotherham a lesson in clinical finishing as on just about the only three occasions they entered the Titans 22 they scored three tries; two came the way of rapid scrum half Jordan Burns, whilst winger Dean Adamson ran in the third on the stroke of half time. Harry Sheppard converted all three tries to add to his earlier penalty on 12 minutes which opened the scoring sequence.

Rotherham continued to enjoy periods of territory and possession throughout the second period and were rewarded for their endeavours on 55 minutes when winger Jake Henry barged his way over in the bottom left corner, following some quick hands from the Titans backs. Caolan Ryan nailed a superb conversion from the touchline.

Again however the home side demonstrated their ruthless, clinical side as they crossed the whitewash on two further occasions after Rotherham had enjoyed strong periods of pressure.

Dean Adamson helped himself to a second dot down before speedy centre Rich Lane showed a tremendous turn of foot to race away for Bedford’s fifth try of the game.

Gamely, Rotherham continued to battle on, determined to show their undoubted character. Late on, having been camped on the Bedford line for some time, replacement hooker Charlie Maddison dived over to earn Titans a deserved second try of the match. Lee Millar converted nicely with the final kick of the game.

Speaking afterwards Titans Andy Key reflected, “We probably had more territory and possession overall and certainly so in the first half, yet we go in at the break 24-0 down. Some of that is probably as a result of the first-up tackles that we missed.

“You have to give Bedford credit; as soon as they got behind us their cutting edge was better than ours. But I thought there was a lot of good things in our forward play; our line out was really good and our drive functioned well and we gave ourselves opportunities.

“I think that’s the difference when you’re a side like us who are really battling for that first win, certain things are going to go right and some things aren’t. Our attack wasn’t quite as sharp as it needed to be, albeit we won the second half 14-10.

“Bedford don’t lose too many games down here, but I felt we competed and we had a really good go at them, but they took their opportunities. You look at where we were on the field at times and maybe we could have made better use of those positions.

“But when that doesn’t go your way you have to make sure you stop them gaining momentum the next time they come at you. We did that for long periods, but when they did get the momentum they scored from it.

“I thought we dominated enough from a forwards point of view and physically at times to get more out of the game and certainly we should have done in the first half. That didn’t happen and as a result going in at 24-0 it’s a big uphill battle thereafter.”

Referee: John Meredith

Attendance: 2,337

Yellow Card: Will Carrick-Smith (Bedford)

Titans: Henry (T), Maddison (T), Ryan (1C), Millar (1C),

Bedford: Burns (2T), Adamson (2T), Lane (T), Sheppard (P. 3C)

Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Ben Foley (Loizias 69), 13 Luke Peters, 12 Joe Barker, 11 Jake Henry, 10 Caolan Ryan (Millar 75), 9 Francisco Vieira, 1 Toby Williams (Tom Williams 75), 2 Luke Cole (Maddison 55), 3 Matt Shields (Foster 69), 4 Rob Louw, 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Adam Peters, 7 Tom Calladine (Capt.), 8 Dan Grange (Postlethwaite 43).

Replacements: 16 Charlie Maddison, 17 Tom Williams, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Matt Postlethwaite, 20 Drew Cheshire, 21 Lee Millar, 22 Yiannis Loizias.

Bedford: 15 Chris Czekaj, 14 Elliot Clements-Hill, 13 Rich Lane, 12 Michael Le Bourgeois (Capt.), 11 Dean Adamson (Hutler 63), 10 Harry Sheppard, 9 Jordan Burns (Dickson 59), 1 Sean McCarthy (Lindsay 55), 2 George Edgson (Parilli-Ocampo 55), 3 Ben Cooper (Spelman 72), 4 Jordan Onojaife (Tupai 59), 5 Will Carrick-Smith, 6 Alex Rae, 7 Ben Adams (Nay 55), 8 Jarad Williams.

Replacements: 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Camilo Parilli-Ocampo, 18 Dave Spelman, 19 Paul Tupai, 20 Jack Nay, 21 Lee Dickson, 22 Ryan Hutler.

Titans 22 Richmond 37

Rotherham Titans put in a disappointing performance as they crashed 37-22 at home to Richmond, as they still search for their first Championship victory of the season.

There were pockets during the game where Rotherham looked dangerous, their driving maul and line out work in particular functioned well. There were also periods in the game where their backs created fine opportunities, but effective defensive work from the visitors, coupled with poor execution ultimately cost Titans the game.

It was Titans who actually started the brighter and deservedly took the lead on 8 minutes through loose head prop Toby Williams, who crashed over from close-range following some sterling work from his fellow pack members.

Rotherham’s lead was short-lived as within 5 minutes Richmond levelled matters when livewire scrum half Luc Jones showed great awareness to skip over.

Undeterred, Rotherham showed good energy and commitment to bounce back before the end of the first quarter. From a Titans turnover the ball arrived with Will Thomas, he made good ground before drawing the last tackle to send in Ben Foley down the right wing for a fine try in the corner.

Again Richmond soon levelled as they mounted a series of pick and goes inside the Titans 22, which resulted in lock forward Chris Davies barging his way over the line.

The visitors now began to enjoy a productive spell which resulted in the home side conceding a number of penalties. Inside the final 7 minutes of the first half Richmond full back Rob Kirby punished Rotherham for their misdemeanours as he knocked over 2 penalty attempts to send his side in at the break with a 20-14 advantage.

Kirby extended Richmond’s lead early in the second period with his third successful kick, after more indiscipline from the home side.

Titans Lee Millar reduced the arrears on 53 minutes from a penalty as Rotherham attempted to re-establish themselves in the game.

Again however, Titans allowed the visitors inside their own 22 and again it was the impressive visiting scrum half Luc Jones who threw an outrageous dummy before racing over for his sides third try of the game.

Rotherham continued to give their best and were not finished yet; following more forward pressure from the pack the ball arrived with Titans Will Thomas who showed good footwork and strength to barge his way over under strong pressure. Millar’s conversion from out wide unfortunately struck the left hand post to leave the hosts 8 points adrift.

Titans continued to make inroads into the Richmond defence and created opportunities inside their half of the pitch. Unfortunately for the hosts they were unable to make the most of these and as the game went into injury time it was Richmond who secured the final score of the game with a bonus-point try from replacement back-rower Toby Saysell.

Commenting post-game Andy Key reflected, “To say we are disappointed with the result doesn’t start to summarise it; we are massively disappointed. Collectively we need to be very disappointed in our overall performance and in our individual performance. That is not a performance by any shadow of doubt.

“I don’t mean to undermined Richmond in anything I say, because they’ve worked exceptionally hard to get themselves into a position where they know what they need to do to win the game and they’ve done that magnificently today.

“They took their chances; I think unfortunately at times we gave them those chances through our mistakes or through our indiscipline and then every time they found themselves in our 22 they came away with points. We didn’t do that.

“When we were inside their 22 and even when they were down a man, a forward, we didn’t do that. I think we are making poor decisions and I think we are making wrong decisions.

“I understand why we probably kicked for goal, but we’d just proved in the corner they’d just binned somebody for going for a drive when there are 8 on the field. Now they’ve got 7 on the field and why we’ve not kicked for the corner and really had a crack at them I do not know.

“We did show snippets in the second half which showed we are more than capable, but 10 minutes here and there will never make a side that can look at his self and say it’s capable of going anywhere other than the bottom of the table and at the moment we are where we are because of our performances.”

Referee: Greg Macdonald

Attendance: 768

Yellow Card: Chris Davies 47 (Richmond)

Titans: Toby Williams (T), Foley (T), Thomas (T), Millar (2C, P),

Richmond: Jones (2T), Davies (T), Saysell (T), Kirby (4C, 3P)

 Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Ben Foley, 13 Drew Cheshire (Loizias 71), 12 Joe Barker, 11 Jake Henry, 10 Lee Millar, 9 Rhodri Davies (Vieira 22), 1 Toby Williams, 2 Luke Cole (Dolly 71), 3 Matt Shields, 4 Rob Louw (Boladau 52), 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Adam Peters, 7 Tom Calladine (Capt.), 8 Dan Grange.

Replacements: 16 Nic Dolly, 17 Tom Williams, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Ifereimi Boladau, 20 Francisco Vieira, 21 Caolan Ryan, 22 Yiannis Loizias.

Richmond: 15 Rob Kirby, 14 Martin Freeman (Simpson-Hefft 72), 13 Cameron Mitchell, 12 Ronnie McLean, 11 Jono Woodward, 10 Freddie Gabbitass, 9 Luc Jones (Gibbs 74), 1 Jeremy Cunnew (Goodrick-Clarke 70), 2 Jason Phipps (Grimstone 62), 3 Craig Trenier (Tarrant 62), 4 Will Warden (Capt.) (Humfrey 66), 5 Chris Davies, 6 Jesse Liston (Saysell 66), 7 Jack Allcock, 8 Jake Parker.

Replacements: 16 Ross Grimstone, 17 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 18 Alex Humfrey, 19 Jamie Gibbs, 20 Jordan Simpson-Hefft, 21 Toby Saysell, 22 Joe Tarrant.