Caldy 29 Titans 33

Rotherham Titans returned to winning ways in dramatic fashion, as they edged an absolute thriller of a game 33-29 against Caldy at Paton Field.

Following an impressive start which saw the Titans race into a 14-0 lead after 12 minutes, an impetuous period followed resulting in them going in at the break trailing by 10 points.

Rotherham then enjoyed the majority of the second half and eventually retook the lead 3 minutes from time to set up a nervy finish. Titans then showed terrific character late on to hold out under the sternest pressure from the home side to edge the 10-try thriller.

Titans may have thought they were in for a comfortable afternoon after full back Callum Irvine and centre Harry Dunne breezed in for two early converted tries. However, the home side weren’t about to roll over for their South Yorkshire visitors.

Showing tremendous heart and determination they powered back into the game to score four tries before the break.

Caldy’s first try on 18 minutes came from number 8 JJ Dickinson, brother of former Titan Sam; JJ showed terrific footwork to dance through the Rotherham defence to dot down near the corner.

Six minutes later a catch and drive five metres from Titans’ line resulted in centre Mike Barlow crashing over, whilst Caldy’s third try on 33 minutes came from back rower Jack Collister following a series of pick and goes inside the Rotherham 22.

The bonus point try for Caldy came just before the break when lock forward Martin Gerrard crashed over from a catch and drive close to the Titans line.

Rotherham left the field shell-shocked as they went in for their half time oranges trailing 24-14. However, following some frank words at the interval Titans came out in determined fashion and with good intensity about their work.

The intensity paid off within 2 minutes as following a number of phases the ball arrived with Callum Irvine who popped a pass to Zak Poole in support, the mobile flanker charged in from 20 metres to finish off a fine team try. Dolly’s conversion from in front of the posts narrowed the gap to 24-21.

Rotherham’s bright start to the second period was undone when deep inside the Caldy 22 a pass was intercepted by winger Nick Royle who proceeded to gallop 80 metres down the right wing to score in the corner.

Titans’ response to that disappointment was admirable. The South Yorkshire side showed terrific character as they redoubled their efforts to bombard the visitors with great energy and ambition.

The pressure eventually took its toll on Caldy in the 55th minute when the ball was spread wide to Dan Leake, the winger showed good skill and strength to beat the defence to score in the corner for an unconverted try to leave Titans trailing 29-26.

Rotherham continued to press forward and pretty much camped themselves inside the Caldy half; yet the hosts showed great resilience as they repeatedly kept out the visitors.

Finally on 77 minutes the crucial breakthrough for Rotherham was made by Seb Nagle-Taylor from a line out on the Caldy 22. The hosts backed-off at the set piece allowing the number 8 to show good awareness to charge through to score next to the posts. Dolly added the extras to give Titans a 33-29 lead.

The final throws of the match saw Caldy with a scrum 5 metres from the Titans line. However, full credit must be extended to the Rotherham pack as they disrupted the host’s set piece to steal the ball and clear their lines to seal a deserved victory.

Commenting post-match a delighted Joe Barker said, “We came out of the gates well and in the first 15 minutes we were very professional and we played some outstanding rugby. Unfortunately we then lose our discipline, which was disappointing because we’d spoken about not doing that in the week and as a result they score four tries and we go in at half time 10 points down.

“At the break we had a few harsh words and then we came out firing at the start of the second half which saw us score an outstanding try. We again start to play some outstanding rugby and we build massive pressure, but unfortunately we throw an interception and they run 90 metres to score.

“What was great to see on the back of that was the character shown by the boys; they didn’t get downhearted by the interception, they kept working hard and they bounced back to score 2 more tries.

“At the death we were under massive pressure close to our own line from their scrum, but our young front row were outstanding, especially when you consider they were up against a Championship quality front row and to come out on top in that situation shows a lot of character and we are delighted to come away with the win against a very good Caldy side.”

Referee: James O'Brien

Attendance: 352

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Irvine (T), Dunne (T), Poole (T), Leake (T), Nagle-Taylor (T), Dolly (4C)

Caldy: Dickinson (T), Barlow (T), Collister (T), Gerrard (T), Royle (T), Jones (2T)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne (Dever 53), 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Dan Richardson (Bergmanas 64), 2 Ali Thomson, 3 Will Dennis (Stout 6) (Dennis 69), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Cotterill 32) (Preston-Routledge 69), 5 Jamie Ure, 6 Luis Ball (Smith-Wano 54), 7 Zak Poole (Cotterill 75), 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Rikki Stout, 18 Tom Cotterill, 19 Smith-Wano, 20 Connor Dever.

Caldy: 15 Rhys Hayes, 14 Nick Royle, 13 Gavin Roberts, 12 Mike Barlow (Othuha 69), 11 Luke Hibberd, 10 Lewis Barker (Vasey 61), 9 Ben Jones, 1 John Whittaker (Salisbury 53) (Whittaker 73), 2 Ted Stagg, 3 Rob O'Donnell, 4 Martin Gerrard, 5 Tom Sanders (Capt.), 6 Jack Collister, 7 Nyle Davidson (Ridgway 69), 8 JJ Dickinson.

Replacements: 16 Callum Ridgway, 17 Derek Salisbury, 18 James Othuha, 19 Michael Cartmill, 20 Richard Vasey.

Titans 14 Cambridge 25

Rotherham Titans somehow managed to turn what should have been a comfortable win over Cambridge into a disappointing 25-14 defeat at Clifton Lane.

Rotherham went in at the break cruising to a comfortable 11-0 lead and having created a number of opportunities could have put the game to bed inside the first half.

This combined with the fact that the visitors had virtually offered nothing in terms of attacking threat and there wouldn’t have been too many inside the ground at half time willing to back against the home side.

So full credit must be given to Cambridge, who after scoring a breakaway try on 46 minutes, went on to arguably be the better side on the day and Rotherham will have to analyse why that was if they are going to get back on the winning trail.

Titans’ points in the first period came initially midway through the half when Seb Nagle-Taylor collected a pass close to the line from Alex Dolly, before showing tremendous strength and desire to crash over the line for an unconverted try.

Dolly stretched Titans advantage by adding penalties on 30 and 40 minutes respectively to send Rotherham in at the break with a comfortable 11-0 cushion of a lead.

The opening exchanges in the second half followed a similar pattern with Rotherham in the ascendancy. That was until the 46th minutes when just 10 metres out a Titans pass went astray; the loose ball was hacked on by Cambridge centre James Ayrton before full back Mike Ayrton collected and galloped 60 metres to dot down under the posts. Lawrence Rayner added the extras to make it 11-7.

Around the hour mark Alex Dolly sandwiched a penalty in between two from Cambridge replacement Jack Green, to leave Rotherham 14-13 ahead, but the momentum of the game had changed and the visitors started to look dangerous and threatening.

With almost a sense of inevitability Cambridge took the lead 9 minutes from time when following a period of forward pressure the ball was spun out to the backs, with it eventually arriving with winger Sam Yawayawa who touched down in the corner for an unconverted try.

Time was running out as Titans tried to retrieve the advantage they’d enjoyed for much of the match. As 80 minutes approached on the clock Rotherham cleared their lines, but the kick was too long allowing Cambridge plenty of time to run back at the home side.

This they did through winger Nana Asiedu who ran in from 70 metres unopposed to score under the posts to wrap up the match. Green slotted the extras from in front to seal an unexpected win for the visitors.

Commenting on the game a disappointed Joe Barker said, “That was very frustrating. The first half was a good one and we should have taken more points, but we still came in at half time 11-0 up. We even continued to dominate in the opening stages of the second half and at no point did they look like scoring a point, not even from a penalty.

“But as soon as they scored that full length try, I don’t know if our energy went or we stopped doing what we were good at, but we started to give penalties away because we were trying to force things rather than sticking to the system and being consistent.

“The first half worked so well because we stuck to our system and built pressure and pressure brings points; but we stopped doing that and we went back to trying to chase something rather than building it and then we end up making little errors that we didn’t make in the first half.

“Our discipline then killed us and we stopped defending the maul and we didn’t have as much dominance in the scrum and that’s credit to them because they took their chances and they played the referee very well. I think we could have handled him a lot better; he had certain ways of refereeing the game and we have to adapt to the referee and we didn’t do that very well.”

Referee: Daniel Collins

Attendance: 644

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Nagle-Taylor (T), Dolly (3P)

Cambridge: M Ayrton (T), Yawayawa (T), Asiedu (T), Rayner (1C), Green (C, 2P)

Titans: 15 Sam Allan (Irvine 34) (Dever 65), 14 Henry Roberts, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Dan Richardson (Bergmanas 70), 2 Ali Thomson, 3 Will Dennis (Stout 66), 4 Conor Keys (Ball 57), 5 Jamie Ure, 6 Tom Cotterill, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Rikki Stout, 18 Luis Ball, 19 Connor Dever, 20 Callum Irvine.

Cambridge: 15 Mike Ayrton (Capt.), 14 Nana Asiedu, 13 James Ayrton, 12 Matt Hema (Rayner 73), 11 Sam Yawayawa, 10 Lawrence Rayner (Green 55), 9 Kieran Duffin, 1 Henry Peck (Ibrahim 24) (Peck 72), 2 Alex Rayment (Ruddock 58), 3 Jack Higgins, 4 Gillan Benoy, 5 George Bretag-Norris, 6 Jake McCloud, 7 Keifer Laxton (Rawlings 52), 8 Stephen Hipwell (Conquest 55).

Replacements: 16 Cameron Ruddock, 17 Ben Ibrahim, 18 Rob Conquest, 19 Louis Rawlings, 20 Jack Green.

Picture Courtesy of Darren George

Ampthill 22 Titans 8

Rotherham’s five match winning streak came to an end as they crashed to a 22-8 defeat away to Ampthill at a blustery Dillingham Park.

Titans overall performance compared to recent efforts was disappointing and they will look to use this experience as a learning curve when the league recommences in two weeks’ time.

The uniqueness of the set-up at Dillingham Park and the slope of the ground was certainly handled better by the home team. However, had Titans taken some opportunities they created, particularly in the first half, they may well have made it 6 wins in a row.

The defeat leaves Rotherham fifth in the table, 4 points off the summit, but with 20 games remaining in National 1 there’s still everything to play for in this longest of seasons.

The game itself saw Titans make the worst start possible as Ampthill touched down after just 65 seconds through winger Nigel Baker. However, had Rotherham collected a loose ball on the ground from the kick off, it’s unlikely the home side would have scored after one minute.

Nevertheless, Rotherham began to settle into the game and enjoyed periods of territory and possession in the hosts half as they tried to make the most of the slope and strong wind.

Following a powerful drive up to the Ampthill line on 13 minutes it looked as though Roth would open their account; unfortunately for them they lost the ball at the crucial moment 3 metres from goal.

On 19 minutes had the final pass to Henry Roberts been an accurate one, the winger would have strolled in for one of his easiest dot downs of the season.

On 22 minutes had Seb Nagle-Taylor not unluckily spilled the ball forward diving over to score Rotherham would have secured their first points and on 32 minutes had another errant pass out wide not occurred, Titans very well may have touched down there too.

Titans did however get on the board after 34 minutes when Ellis Abrahams knocked over a penalty on the angle from 35 metres. Rotherham had turned down 2 other kicks at goal earlier in the game.

As the half drew to a close Rotherham pressed further looking to add to their total, but a resilient home defence made sure there would be no further score and Titans went in at the break trailing 7-3.

Both teams stayed out on the pitch at half time rather than walking back through the woods to the clubhouse. This new on-the-pitch half time team discussion didn’t hinder Rotherham one jot, as they took the lead 2 minutes into the second period.

Jamie Cooke collected the ball out wide on the right before showing excellent pace and power to run through Ampthill’s defence for a fine try. Abrahams narrowly missed the conversion as the strengthening wind pushed the ball across the face of the sticks.

To be fair however, Rotherham’s opportunities were limited in the second half as the hosts utilised the conditions well. The vastly experienced Ampthill pack trundled around the field to good effect and their backs looked sharp when given the ball; all of which meant Titans had to defend hard for long periods.

On 66 minutes Rotherham’s line was breached when scrum-half Euan McKirdy collected from the back of a maul to snipe round to score next to the posts from 5 metres out. Fly half Josh Sharp added the extras from in front to give the hosts a 14-8 advantage.

Things got worse for Rotherham on 72 minutes when Eru Smith-Wano was shown a yellow card for what the referee said was a no arms tackle. This was Titans second yellow card of the game after Connor Field was shown his on 14 minutes. From the resulting penalty Josh Sharp added the 3 points from 40 metres out to extend his sides lead to 17-8.

As the game went into injury time some sloppy defending by Rotherham allowed Ampthill to run in to score the final points of the game through Josh Sharp, who converted his own try.

Commenting post-match a disappointed Joe Barker explained, “The result is a tough one to take, but ultimately it will do us a world of good. We’ve been on a bit of a roll these last few weeks and sometimes you have to go through some tough results and this is one of those.

“This is now a challenge for us as a group; strong people come out of these situations stronger. You have to have good character to come through these moments and I believe this group has bags of it and there’s no doubt they will bounce back from this.

“I think defensively we were really strong and they gained field position through silly things and some of those things were outside of what we can control, but we still need to handle that.

“However in attack we didn’t get into many phases as we didn’t have the ball too often. Our fitness levels and commitment was outstanding once again and that’s a positive which will stand us in good stead going forwards.”

Referee: George Selwood

Attendance: 385

Yellow Card: Field & Smith-Wano (Titans)

Titans: Cooke (T), Abrahams (P)

Ampthill: Baker (T), McKirdy (T), Sharp (T, P, 2C)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Henry Roberts, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever (Dolly 50), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Ali Thomson (Bergmanas 70), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 39), 4 Tom Cotterill (Keys 53), 5 Jamie Ure, 6 Luis Ball (Smith-Wano 50), 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Conor Keys, 19 Eru Smith-Wano, 20 Alex Dolly.

Ampthill: 15 Ciaran Whyte (Foster 74), 14 Spencer Sutherland, 13 Oli Morris, 12 Sam Hanks, 11 Nigel Baker, 10 Josh Sharp (Whyte 79), 9 Euan McKirdy (Williams 64), 1 Soane Tongauiha (Culverhouse 77), 2 Aleki Lutui (Walliker 40), 3 Matt Collins (Lutui 58), 4 Carl Burgess (Molitika 58), 5 Billy Johnson (Capt.), 6 Syd Blackmore, 7 Joe Bercis (Burgess 70), 8 Ma'ama Molitika (Allman 40).

Replacements: 16 Olly Walliker, 17 Jack Culverhouse, 18 William Allman, 19 Gavin Williams, 20 Will Foster.