Titans 7 Cinderford 30

Rotherham Titans suffered a bad day at the office crashing to a fourth successive home defeat as a dominant Cinderford side ran out 30-7 winners at a bleak and wintery Clifton Lane.

The loss leaves Titans 11 points adrift of safety in the relegation zone and a quick upturn in fortunes is now essential if their ambition of staying in National 1 is to be achieved.

The game itself started well for the South Yorkshire side as they looked bright and full of enthusiasm from the off and when captain Zak Poole crashed over on 8 minutes it was no more than the Titans deserved.

However, the momentum of the game soon shifted as the visitors dominance, particularly at scrum time, laid a foundation for three first half tries from number 8 Harry Hone, hooker Nathan Taylor and winger Ed Bogue.

The latter try was a bitter disappointment for Rotherham as it came from a loss line out on the stroke of half time when they were trailing by just 6 points. Instead, the wingers try saw Cinderford go in at the break with a lead of 20-7.

The second half began in similar fashion to how the first had ended, with the South West side in the ascendancy in most aspects of the game.

The match was effectively sealed around the hour mark when replacement flanker Matt Gilbert crossed the whitewash for his side bonus point try.

To their credit Rotherham never gave up and indeed spent the majority of the final quarter inside the Cinderford half in pursuit of some consolation. Unfortunately for them they were unable to cross the line and the visitor’s ran out worthy winners.

A disappointed Matt Smith commenting afterwards said, “It was a tough afternoon for our boys; Cinderford were quality up front and we struggled with that which was disappointing, and as a forwards coach it hurts even more.

“We had a scrum five metres out and we got turned over on our own ball; if we score there we’re back in the game.

“Then there was a set piece close to our line; we mess up a line out due to someone missing a lift and they end up scoring and that’s 14 points right there.

“When things are not going your way all these things seem to escalate and as a result the confidence goes and it’s always difficult when that happens. Everyone is hurting and everyone is trying their best to put things right, but it’s not going to get fixed overnight.

“I thought in the first ten minutes when we scored we looked really good; I also thought we looked good in the final 15 minutes, the lads found a lot of energy in the final quarter which I couldn’t understand, which maybe suggest it’s a mental thing.

“But once again you need to have that platform that comes off the scrum to allow you to get field position and attack teams and obviously we didn’t have that today.”

Referee: Ben Rayner

Attendance: 471

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Poole (T), Hollingsworth (1C)

Cinderford: Hone (T), Taylor (T), Bogue (T), Gilbert (T), Butler (2P, 2C)

Titans: 15 Sam Hollingsworth, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Tom Bullough, 11 Ben Robbins, 10 Morgan Bunting (Allan 64), 9 Connor Dever, 1 Toby Williams, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Defelitto 69), 3 Will Dennis (Nearchou 60), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Wilson 77), 5 Will Hughes (Ward 48), 6 Lewis Wilson (North 64), 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Agustin Defelitto, 17 Zac Nearchou, 18 Elliott Ward, 19 Alfie North, 20 Sam Allan.

Cinderford: 15 Ed Sheldon (Pointon 29), 14 Sam Smith, 13 Terence Babarinsa (Mansfield 55), 12 Jack Hayes (Capt) (Babarinsa 69), 11 Ed Bogue, 10 James Butler, 9 Jimmy Williams, 1 Ollie Dawe (Brockett 60), 2 Nathan Taylor (Shields 67) (Lane 69), 3 Tim Brockett (Elliot 40), 4 Jack Shields (Bennett 55), 5 Dale Lemon, 6 Matt Lane (Gilbert 64), 7 Joe Mullis, 8 Harry Hone.

Replacements: 16 James Elliot, 17 Matt Gilbert, 18 Matt Bennett, 19 Dan Pointon, 20 Will Mansfield.

Bishop’s Stortford 30 Titans 14

Rotherham Titans faded badly late on, as they crashed to a disappointing 30-14 defeat to Bishop’s Stortford on a gloomy afternoon at Silver Leys.

For much of the contest Rotherham held their own against a lively Stortford side that looked to attack at every opportunity through their speedy backline.

Titans had grafted hard to position themselves 14-13 ahead with just 5 minutes plus injury time remaining.

However, at that point, the hosts lock forward James Thacker crashed over for a converted try.

What was probably more disappointing for the South Yorkshire side was how easily Stortford controlled the final few minutes to knock over a penalty and another converted try from Thacker to deny Rotherham anything from the game.

Titans had deservedly gone in at the break 7-3 to the good after Elliott Ward scored a driving maul try just before half time, which wiped out Stortford’s lead from a Brad Burr penalty on 20 minutes.

Rotherham’s scrum had been pretty dominant throughout the half and indeed the match, but surprisingly wasn’t rewarded often enough with what they thought were penalty outcomes.

Titans increased their advantage early in the second half through their dominant number 8 Anthony Maka, as he crashed over following more powerful work from the Titans pack. Morgan Bunting successfully added the conversion to extend his sides lead to 14-3.

At this stage Rotherham looked good value for their lead.

However, shortly after the hosts full back Nick Hankin crossed the whitewash and scrum half Tom Banks firstly converted and then added a 3-pointer from the tee to make it a 1-point game.

Rotherham regrouped and steadied the ship and indeed had moments themselves where opportunities were created to add to their tally. However, a stern defence and a lack of accuracy ultimately meant they wouldn’t.

Titans will want to quickly forget the final minutes of a game where they conceded 17 points and regroup for another tough one on Saturday against Cinderford at Clifton Lane.

Commenting post-match a disappointed Anthony Posa said, “The first half, whilst not perfect, went pretty well and the lead we took in at the break was fully deserved.

At half time we addressed a few key areas where we believed we could improve further and to be fair to the boys they did well in the first 15 minutes of the second half, they were very good, we were in control of the game and we deserved our 14-3 lead.

“However, Bishop’s like to play quickly from transition-ball and we needed to be sharper in preventing them doing that; but we weren’t and the result really hurts because I don’t think that was a game we should have lost.

“We weren’t good enough in the last quarter of the game; whether that was a fitness issue or not being mentally tough enough I’m not sure, but we gave them too many piggy-backs at the end and that hurt us badly.

“Moving forwards we have to keep working hard, the injuries we have aren’t helping, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse because I believe we should have won the game.”

Referee: Jonathan Cook

Attendance: 425

Yellow Card: Leake & Frost (Titans)

Titans: Ward (T). Maka (T), Bunting (2C)

Bishop’s Stortford: Thacker (2T), Hankin (T), Burr (P), Banks (3C, 2P)

Titans: 15 Tom Bacon, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne (Hollingsworth 50), 11 Ben Robbins, 10 Morgan Bunting (Dunne 60), 9 Connor Dever, 1 Harry Whitfield (Williams 10), 2 Harry Newborn (Bergmanas 27), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Elliott Ward (Frost 50), 6 Lewis Wilson (Laxton 64), 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Anthony Maka.

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Kieran Frost, 19 Keifer Laxton, 20 Sam Hollingsworth.

Bishop’s Stortford: 15 Nick Hankin, 14 Rob Duff, 13 Sam Winter (Capt.), 12 James Ayrton, 11 Mike Ayrton, 10 Brad Burr (Stannard 50), 9 Tom Banks, 1 Will Roberts, 2 Harrison King (Caulfield 60), 3 Ben Harrison-Price (McCrone 60), 4 James Thacker, 5 Tom Lewis, 6 James Apperley, 7 Baxter Wilson (Ball), 8 Charlie Kingham.

Replacements: 16 Declan Caulfield, 17 Tom McCrone, 18 Luis Ball, 19 Josh Stannard, 20 Jake Spivey.

Titans 16 Rams 28

Rotherham Titans raised their level from recent performances, but unfortunately came up against a very good side in Rams Rugby, as they crashed to a 28-16 defeat at Clifton Lane.

Titans were outscored by four tries to one, with the hosts sole touch down coming in the final play of the game from number 8 Anthony Maka, via a catch and drive close to the Rams line.

Sam Hollingsworth added three penalty kicks and Morgan Bunting impressed with a conversion from the touchline at the death.

On a very heavy Clifton Lane surface, due to the torrential rain suffered in South Yorkshire during the previous 48 hours, it was the hosts who started the brighter.

Indeed Titans’ fly half Sam Hollingsworth nudged his side ahead on 2 minutes with the first of his three first half penalties.

However, the visitors, who came into the game sitting fourth in the table, looked to be a class act from early on.

Full back, Will Partington, dual-registered from Premiership side London Irish and former London Scottish centre Connor Hayhow in particular looked dangerous every time they had ball in hand.

Indeed, the latter got Rams on the board on 13 minutes with the first of his three tries, whilst the former expertly converted the first of what would be four conversions.

On 20 minutes a rampant Rams side extended their advantage when winger Conor Corrigan ran through to score.

Titans were made to work extremely hard in defence and to their credit this they did to great effect. Time and again Rams battered the gain line and time and again the Rotherham defence not only held firm, but drove the opposition backwards.

Coming out for the second half trailing 14-9 and attacking the clubhouse end of the ground, Rotherham had high hopes they could cause an upset against a top-end side.

However, either side of the hour mark, man-of-the-match centre Connor Hayhow ruthlessly finished off moves to add two further tries to wrap up the game.

Rotherham to their credit never stopped grafting and in the final play of the match picked up a consolation try, when number 8 Anthony Maka dotted down from a catch and drive close to the line.

Whilst naturally disappointed with the loss, Titans Director of Rugby, Martin Jenkinson, saw some green shoots of encouragement, “I hate losing, but it was a bit easier to take today as I was really impressed with Rams. They demonstrated in clinical fashion that our sport is a team game.

“They did the simple things right, they made very few mistakes and all their scores came after they calmly waited for us to make mistakes, which gave them field position, which in turn led to them scoring four tries.

“With regards to our performance; I think we made a step up on where we have been of late and our efforts today would have beaten some sides which we have lost to this season.

“Our performance was undoubtedly better than it has been in recent weeks; unfortunately we came up against a very good Rams side. I thought our scrum and line out performed better, but I thought we just looked a bit blunt at times in the final third.

“But we are hopeful that we have turned a corner and from here on in we aim to continue with our improvements.

“However, no side is going to roll over for you and we as a group have to keep working hard and keep battling so we gain enough wins to stay in this division.”

Referee: Joe James

Attendance: 483

Yellow Card: Frost (Titans)

Titans: Maka (T), Hollingsworth (3P), Bunting (1C)

Rams: Hayhow (3T), Corrigan (T), Partington (4C)

Titans: 15 Tom Bacon, 14 Dan Leake (Ward 52), 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Tom Bullough, 11 Ben Robbins, 10 Sam Hollingsworth (Leake 73), 9 Connor Dever, 1 Toby Williams (Whitfield h-t), 2 Harry Newborn (Bergmanas 65), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Kieran Frost (Bunting 65), 6 Lewis Wilson (Laxton 65), 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Anthony Maka.

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Harry Whitfield, 18 Elliott Ward, 19 Keifer Laxton, 20 Morgan Bunting.

Rams: 15 Will Partington, 14 Henry Bird (Rossiter 34), 13 Keiran Leicester, 12 Connor Hayhow, 11 Conor Corrigan, 10 Andrew Humberstone, 9 Ollie Cole (Moates 65), 1 Niall Kidd, 2 Ben Henderson (Moffitt 69), 3 James Baker (Zeiss 65), 4 Oliver Taylor, 5 Jamie Guttridge, 6 Louis Wolf (Collis 54), 7 Tom Vooght, 8 Robbie Stapley (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ollie Moffitt, 17 Cameron Zeiss, 18 Josh Collis, 19 Jack Rossiter, 20 Jack Moates.

Hull Ionians 20 Titans 20

Rotherham Titans put in a disappointing performance in wet, dismal conditions to draw an uninspired game 20-20 against Yorkshire rivals Hull Ionians at Brantingham Park.

The result could have been even worse for the South Yorkshire side had Ionians fly half Max Titchener not missed two penalties in the final three minutes of the match.

The conditions were same for both teams; however, the sodden ground made running rugby difficult to execute and certainly favoured the host’s forward-orientated style better.

This was aptly demonstrated as early as the 9th minute, when Ionians laid down a marker with a powerful scrum close to the Titans line. Rotherham were forced to halt the scrum illegally allowing referee James O'Brien to award a penalty try to Hull.

Stung into action Titans played the majority of the rest of the half deep inside Ionians territory. However, a combination of stout defending from Hull and poor execution and a lack of control from Rotherham, saw the visitors only add a 3-pointer from the boot of Morgan Bunting for their efforts.

Indeed to add to Rotherham’s disappointment, on the stroke of half time the hosts added their own 3-pointer from Max Titchener to send his side in at the break 10-3 to the good.

Titans stormed out of the blocks for the second period and looked full of energy and intensity. Their renewed enthusiasm was reward three minutes in when following a number of phases which included backs and forwards, the ball arrived with Zak Poole who powered over from close range.

However, despite Rotherham’s better start to the half, there was a stubbornness and determination from the hosts which meant they were not about to rollover.

On 53 minutes Titchener knocked over a penalty to increase Ionians advantage to 5 points.

Then just after the hour mark a piece of individual brilliance from Titans winger Dan Leake lit up what had been a damp squib of a match.

Following a series of neat passes along the backline the ball arrived with Leake on the right wing, he in turn cleverly chipped over the top and won the foot race to collect in his stride to dot down near the sticks. Sam Hollingsworth’s conversion gave Rotherham the lead for the first time in the game at 15-13.

Titans lead however would last just five minutes! From a line out close to the Rotherham line Ionians pack of forwards drove with real menace, and from a Titans perspective, all too easily over the try-line for their second try of the game. Titchener added the extras to nose his side 20-15 ahead.

Seven minutes from time and a quick tap penalty from Zak Poole caught the host’s cold. The ball was then spread infield before an interchange of passes from Tom Bacon and Jude Williams resulted in the former diving over in the corner for a terrific score which levelled the game at 20 apiece.

Unfortunately in the tricky conditions, the touchline conversion agonisingly came up short for Sam Hollingsworth and the Titans.

Commenting post-match a disappointed Anthony Posa reflected, “I think we left 3 points out there today and we are very frustrated with that; the amount of piggy backs we gave them hurt us a lot. We had a certain game plan and what is really frustrating is the few times that we stuck to our game plan we scored some great tries.

“Credit to Ionians though as their scrum and driving maul was strong, but we are hurting at the moment with numerous guys out injured and in particular at tight head prop. We had to ask a teenager (Zac Nearchou) from Wasps to come in and do us a job and he made a good fist of it and we are very grateful to him and Wasps for that.

“However, the nature of National 1 rugby is that if you have a weakness it will be exploited and both Ionians tries came from the scrum or the maul.

“It’s hard to win any game when your scrum is going backwards and even harder when it’s wet and pouring down with rain. You need a platform to launch from and when your scrum isn’t functioning you just don’t get that.

“But we will fix it and we’ll keep working hard on the training paddock. Hopefully next week we will have some guys coming back into contention that have a lot of experience at this level. “

Referee: James O'Brien

Attendance: 411

Yellow Card: Makin & Laverick (Hull Ionians)

Titans: Poole (T), Leak (T), Bacon (T), Bunting (1P), Hollingsworth (1C)

Hull Ionians: Penalty Try, Stephenson (T), Titchener (2P, 1C)

Titans: 15 Tom Bacon, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Connor Field (Hollingsworth 35), 12 Tom Bullough, 11 Jude Williams, 10 Morgan Bunting, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Toby Williams (Whitfield 66), 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Harry Whitfield (Nearchou 32), 4 Elliott Ward (Preston-Routledge 50), 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Lewis Wilson (North 72), 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Agustin Defelitto, 17 Zac Nearchou, 18 Dan Preston-Routledge, 19 Alfie North, 20 Sam Hollingsworth.

Hull Ionians: 15 Luke Thundercliffe (Kerr 46), 14 Harrison Astley, 13 Billy Hardy, 12 James Tincknell, 11 Jack Colbourne, 10 Max Titchener, 9 Joe Green (Fummo 76), 1 David Laverick (Edward Brown 66), 2 Ben Stephenson (Adam Brown 68), 3 Benjamin Bell (Peace 60), 4 Joe Makin, 5 Tom Peters, 6 George Mewburn, 7 James Sanderson, 8 Edward Brown (Carlile 60).

Replacements: 16 Ben Carlile, 17 Josh Peace, 18 Adam Brown, 19 Zach Kerr, 20 Marco Fummo.