Titans 24 London Scottish 27

Rotherham Titans were denied their first Championship victory of the season as London Scottish winger Craig Holland went over for a try in the tenth minute of injury time to give the visitors a 27-24 victory at Clifton Lane.

The late drama was brutally heart-breaking for the South Yorkshire side, as for much of the contest they had been the better side and would have fully deserved their first win of the season.

However, the result leaves Rotherham 16 points adrift of both Jersey and London Scottish at the foot of the table and with a mountain to climb if they are going to avoid relegation into National One for next season.

The game itself started in worrying fashion for the Titans as inside 5 minutes the Exiles crashed over for their first try through hooker Isaac Miller and with a successful conversion from fly half Jake Sharp to follow, the visitors quickly moved into a 7-0 lead.

Rotherham however didn’t let this early setback deter them as they bounced back quickly with good periods of territory and possession; although they did have to wait until the 22nd minute before getting on the scoreboard themselves.

But when they did they did in some style as the ball arrived with scrum half Rhodri Davies from a line out and the Welshman showed terrific pace and awareness to skip through the Scottish defence to score a fine try. Caolan Ryan added the extras to draw the scores level.

Rotherham continued to enjoy the lion’s share of play as both backs and forwards combined well to keep the visitors under pressure and error-strewn. On the back of that pressure Titans added a well-deserved second try just before the break when Rhodri Davies once again showed his class as he made a blind side break, before accelerating away to score near the posts. Ryan’s extras double Titans lead to 14-7.

And there was just enough first half injury time remaining to allow Ryan to knock over a penalty to send the hosts in at the break with a well-earned 17-7 advantage.

Rotherham would have looked to keep things tight in the opening exchanges of the second period; however, that’s not how it panned out. Within 8 minutes of the restart London Scottish had levelled the game following a Jake Sharp penalty and then a second try from hooker Isaac Miller, which Sharp successfully converted.

The game then tightened up as both sides appeared to realise the importance of the game and each side looked nervous in what they were trying achieve.

However, ten minutes from time it was the visitors who nosed ahead when Sharp calmly slotted over a 3-pointer following Rotherham being penalised for offside.

The tension now within Clifton Lane was palpable, but that was massively eased for the home side five minutes from the end when winger Ben Foley charged down a clearing Scottish kick and hacked on into the try-scoring zone. As he was about to dot down he was taken out off the ball by Scottish replacement Charlie Ingall. The referee immediately awarded a penalty try to give Rotherham a 24-20 lead and yellow carded the offender.

Quite where 10 minutes of injury time came from at the end no one in the ground appeared to know afterwards. However, credit to London Scottish as they never gave up in their attempts to win the game and you could almost hear a pin drop when winger Craig Holland crashed over at the death.

A very disappointed Andy Key commented post-match, “I’m really don’t understand where all the injury time came from at the end, but having said that we haven’t helped ourselves in the game and there were times when our discipline let us down around the offside line.

“I’ve got to bite my lip a little, but I think they’ve got to take a hard look at London Scottish and opportunities that could have come our way with regards to them being offside. I don’t really want to talk about the officials, but once again we have been hurt in the last couple of weeks. We are in control of our own destiny, but we expect things to happen in the middle are in line with what should happen. We got penalised three times for being offside, I think they got penalised once, if that.

“At the end we were in the right area of the field, we were defending them and they knocked the ball on and when we go down to pick it up we get nudged in the back; that should be a penalty to us and it’s as simple as that because you can’t do that.

“I thought we saw a huge shift in performance from the boys and they showed a massive amount of character and I’m really pleased with what they did, I couldn’t have asked for much more. But at the end of the day I think it’s fair to say we’ve only got ourselves to blame; some of that indiscipline gave them opportunities to score some points.”

Referee: Matthew O'Grady

Attendance: 634

Yellow Card: Ingall (Scottish)

Titans: Davies (2T), Penalty Try, Ryan (P, 2C)

London Scottish: Miller (2T), Holland (T), Sharp (2P, 3C)

Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Ben Foley, 13 Yiannis Loizias (Hamilton 29), 12 Logan Tibbetts, 11 Drew Cheshire, 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Rhodri Davies, 1 Tom Williams (Toby Williams 60), 2 Luke Cole (Murphy 54), 3 Matt Shields (Palmer 67), 4 Adam Peters, 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Tom Calladine (Capt.), 7 Charlie Maddison (Postlethwaite 72), Tom Burns (Grange 67). 

Replacements: 16 Jonny Murphy, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Brandon Palmer, 19 Matt Postlethwaite, 20 Dan Grange, 21 Lee Millar, 22 Wesley Hamilton.

London Scottish: 15 Fraser Lyle (Ingall 67), 14 Matt Williams, 13 Ross Neal, 12 Ben Mosses, 11 Craig Holland, 10 Jake Sharp, 9 Alex Walker, 1 Derrick Appiah (Christie 72), 2 Isaac Miller (George72), 3 Ewan McQuillin (Cringle 53), 4 Ed Milne, 5 Jonathan Mills (Capt.), 6 Gregor Gillanders, 7 Chris Walker (Marley 73), 8 Joe Atkinson.

Replacements: 16 Dan George, 17 Ben Onyeama Christie, 18 Phil Cringle, 19 Matt Marley, 20 Max Berry, 21 Ed Hoadley, 22 Charlie Ingall.

Titans 14 Jersey Reds 45

Rotherham Titans put in a disappointing display as they crashed 45-14 at home to Jersey Reds to leave them rock bottom of the Greene King IPA Championship and without a win after nine games of the campaign.

The gap to London Scottish, who are eleventh in the league has widened to 13 points, leaving the Titans with a real fight on their hands if they are to avoid finishing bottom of the pile this term.

Jersey wasted little time in making an impact as winger Tom Pincus raced over for the first of his three tries after just 2 minutes, with fly half Brendan Cope adding the extras to give the Islanders a 7-0 dream start.

To be fair, Titans then enjoyed the majority of both territory and possession over the next 15 minutes, as they pressed the Reds and caused them to concede numerous penalties. From three such penalties Titans fly half Caolan Ryan stepped up and convincingly knocked them over to nudge Rotherham into a 9-7 lead.

The visitors however came back with real force and through their big set of combative forwards had considerable success as they forced the Titans backwards. The pressure told on 22 minutes when flanker Seb Nagle-Taylor peeled off a driving maul to race in virtually unopposed. Brendan Cope nailed the extras and a penalty just after the half hour mark to close out the first half with the Reds holding a 17-9 advantage.

Rotherham made a bright and breezy start to the second period and it looked as if they’d pulled themselves back into the game just 2 minutes in when winger Drew Cheshire showed electrifying pace down the right wing to dot down. Unfortunately for him and the Titans, the Assistant Referee flagged to denote Cheshire had just gone into touch close to the line. Chances for the home side thereafter proved scarce.

 A dominant period followed for the Reds as they scored 21 unanswered points. First of all lively scrum half Kieran Hardy helped himself to a brace of tries on 53 and 65 minutes, before winger Tom Pincus collected his second try on 76 minutes, all of which were expertly converted by Cope.

Rotherham battled on gamely and Charlie Maddison gained some reward for his efforts when he crashed over in the final minute for Titans sole try of the game.

However, the final say went the way of the visitors as winger Tom Pincus collected his hat trick in stoppage time to round off a disappointing day for the South Yorkshire side.

Speaking post-match Titans Andy Key honestly reflected, “We were not good enough on the day. I think the players said it in the huddle and very passionately and honestly as well and there’s no getting around it we were just not good enough today.

“There were a lot of good things that went on in the week and we knew what we needed to do; we rocked up at times, but rocking up at times isn’t good enough, we’ve got to be there for the majority. And then you start forcing things and then you give away interceptions.

“When you start playing catch-up rugby things start going against you; I’d rather we didn’t do that, but it’s a reflection as well of what the players are prepared to do, to try and get themselves back in the game. It’s been a massively disappointing day.

“We’re not hiding from anything, today was massively important and we genuinely believed in the week, with the things that we did and the homework that we did on Jersey, we thought we knew how to beat them.

“Early on in the game, although they got an early score, we clawed ourselves back and created some opportunities. We just needed to persevere with what we were doing. We probably didn’t work hard enough at times, in order to get ourselves onto the front foot in the first half and we maybe should have played a little bit more territory at times.

“But that the style we are playing, with where we are we can’t go toe to toe with some of these guys, so we have to be a bit smarter in the sense of how we play and that’s what we’re trying to do. But today I think we came up against a good side; a side that came over here looking to put some of their wrongs right and they did just that.”

Referee: Steve Lee

Attendance: 812

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Maddison (T), Ryan (3P)

Jersey: Pincus (3T), Hardy (2T), Nagle-Taylor (T), Cope (6C, P)

Titans: 15 Ben Foley, 14 Drew Cheshire, 13 Yiannis Loizias, 12 Luke Peters (Millar 53), 11 Jake Henry (Tibbetts 46), 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Rhodri Davies, 1 Tom Williams (Toby Williams 54), 2 Luke Cole (Murphy 62), 3 Matt Shields (Palmer 62), 4 Adam Peters (Postlethwaite 68), 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Tom Calladine (Capt.), 7 Charlie Maddison, 8 Ifereimi Boladau (Grange 10). 

Replacements: 16 Jonny Murphy, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Brandon Palmer, 19 Matt Postlethwaite, 20 Dan Grange, 21 Logan Tibbetts, 22 Lee Millar.

Jersey Reds: 15 Auguy Slowik (Bryant 58-68 HIA), 14 Tom Pincus, 13 Apakuki Ma'afu, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Josh Hodson (Bryant 68), 10 Brendan Cope, 9 Kieran Hardy (Dudley 66), 1 Jake Woolmore (Capt.) (Godfrey 64), 2 Nick Selway (Saunders 52), 3 Jake Armstrong (Atalifo 59), 4 Jerry Sexton, 5 James Voss (Quarrie 62), 6 Conor Joyce (Kolo'ofa'I 65), 7 Seb Nagle-Taylor, 8 Matt Rogerson.

Replacements: 16 Jared Saunders, 17 Roy Godfrey, 18 Leeroy Atalifo, 19 Tom Quarrie, 20 Uili Kolo'ofa'I, 21 Joel Dudley, 22 Oli Bryant.

Bristol 55 Titans 10

Rotherham Titans remain winless in the Championship after crashing to a disappointing 55-10 defeat to table-toppers Bristol Rugby at Ashton Gate.

The hosts ran in 8 tries to the Titans one, in a fixture that was always going to be a challenging one for the South Yorkshire side.

Nevertheless, Rotherham will be disappointed with their overall performance, as a steady stream of errors constantly prevented them from gaining a foothold in the game. As for Bristol, they look well set for an immediate return to the top tier of English Rugby.

Rotherham actually started the game quite brightly and enjoyed some early go-forward possession and when Caolan Ryan slotted over a penalty on 4 minutes it was no more than the Titans deserved.

That however, was just about as good as it got for the visitors, as the home side quickly established themselves on the game and soon found themselves ahead following a penalty try on 13 minutes.

Rotherham attempts to keep Bristol at bay, whilst full of effort and endeavour, proved to be futile as the hosts ran in three further first half tries through hooker Ross McMillan, centre Tusi Pisi and second rower Joe Joyce to leave Titans trailing 26-3 at the break.

The second period followed a similar pattern to the first, as an early penalty try for Bristol was followed by another three tries for the hosts. Winger Luke Morahan, replacement front row forward Jason Harris-Wright and winger Tom Varndell all crossed the whitewash to rub salt into the Titans wounds.

To be fair to Rotherham however, they never stopped trying to take the game to Bristol and 8 minutes from time were rewarded for their never-say-die attitude when a quick tap and go from replacement scrum half Rhodri Davies saw the Welshman carve through the home defence to dot down under the posts. Lee Millar added the extras to get Rotherham into double figures.

However, the final score of the game came four minutes from time when Bristol fly half Callum Sheedy nailed an impressive long-range drop goal to make the final score 55-10.

Speaking after the game a frustrated Andy Key said, “We’re obviously disappointed; we’ve come to a club where we knew what we needed to do to apply pressure having done our homework, but we made too many mistakes. There were too many errors and at times when we were starting to apply pressure, we couldn’t sustain it.

“The game is simple really; you build pressure, you sustain it and you maintain it and we didn’t do that and we let them off the hook. When you start letting sides like Bristol, who understand the Premiership, off the hook they’re going to kill you. That’s what they did today and off our mistakes they probably scored three or four tries.

“It’s easy to be disappointed about a game like that and we are and that’s how we are as a squad and how we need to react. We’ve got a run of games coming up now where we need to step up and show that the team and the club understands where it’s going.

“We will take some positives from today, I thought the last 10 minutes when certain players came on they made a difference. It was great to see Rhodri Davies back in the form he’s in, he puts massive pressure on the opposition and he tap and went a couple of times and showed that a side can never switch off with him around. Bola came on which was good to see after his injury; he carried well and made some good off-loads.

“We put Bristol under some pressure, but we weren’t able to convert that into points. We need to understand where we are in relation to Bristol, but we also need to understand where we are going forward and what needs to happen over the next two or three weeks.”

Referee: Adam Leal

Attendance: 8,184

Yellow Card: Tom Williams (Titans)

Titans: Davies (T), Ryan (P), Millar (C)

Bristol: Penalty Try (2T), McMillan (T), Pisi (T), Joyce (T), Morahan (T), Harris-Wright (T), Varndell (T), Sheedy (4C, D-G)

Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Drew Cheshire, 13 Yiannis Loizias, 12 Luke Peters, 11 Jake Henry, 10 Caolan Ryan (Millar 30), 9 Francisco Vieira (Davies 52), 1 Toby Williams (Tom Williams h-t), 2 Luke Cole (Maddison 60), 3 Matt Shields (Palmer 65), 4 Rob Louw (Grange 57), 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Adam Peters, 7 Tom Calladine (Capt.), 8 Tom Burns (Boladau 61).

Replacements: 16 Charlie Maddison, 17 Tom Williams, 18 Brandon Palmer, 19 Dan Grange, 20 Ifereimi Boladau, 21 Rhodri Davies, 22 Lee Millar.

Bristol: 15 Mat Protheroe, 14 Luke Morahan, 13 Siale Piutau (Hurrell 50), 12 Tusi Pisi (Madigan 53), 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Callum Sheedy, 9 Andy Uren (Williams 71), 1 Soane Tonga’uiha (O’Connell 50), 2 Ross McMillan (Harris-Wright 50), 3 Nicky Thomas, 4 Joe Joyce, 5 Joe Batley, 6 Sam Jeffries, 7 Dan Thomas, 8 Jordan Crane (Capt).

Replacements: 16 Jason Harris-Wright, 17 Jack O’Connell, 18 Gaston Cortes, 19 Steven Luatua, 20 Rhodri Williams, 21 Ian Madigan, 22 Will Hurrell.