Rotherham Titans are looking to make it 5 wins on the trot in National 1 when they entertain Darlington Mowden Park at Clifton Lane on Saturday; kick-off is 2pm.
Following their hard earned, but deserved victory over Blackheath last week, Rotherham will hope to continue their fine form against Mowden this weekend, as they aim to climb the table further as the second half of the season unfolds.
However, having been well-beaten 42-19 against Mowden earlier in the season at the Northern Echo Arena, Rotherham are acutely aware their task ahead won’t be a straightforward one.
Three former Titans are expected to line up against their old club tomorrow, Garry Law and Matt Dudman will be in the backline, whilst in the pack Talite Vaioleti is sure to make his presence felt.
Going into the game Rotherham have made 2 changes to their starting XV, both of which come in the pack. At hooker Jack Bergmanas comes in for Ali Thomson, whilst in the second row Kieran Frost has been drafted in on dual-registration terms from Yorkshire Carnegie, which allows Luis Ball to return to the back row for the injured Eru Smith-Wano.
On the bench and likely to make his second appearance for the club at some stage; having made his try-scoring debut on the opening day of the season against Old Elthamians, is Tom Allott. Tom has some time off from university and will relish the opportunity to pull on the Titans jersey once again.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans’ Joe Barker explained, “We know what a good side Darlington are; we played them in our second game of the season and they definitely deserved the win that day.
“It was our second competitive game as a brand new squad and at times during the match I think that showed. However, I’d like to think as a squad we have improved since then and as such I think we will give a better account of ourselves.
“They had a good win last week against Cinderford and they’ll fancy doing the double over us. We know it’ll be tough because as we’ve found out all season there just isn’t an easy game in this division.
“So it will be important that we keep striving to do the right things as a squad. We don’t need to change anything, we just need to keep improving on the basics, stay patient at the critical moments and be clinical in taking our opportunities. If we can do that we’ll give ourselves a great chance.”
Titans: 15 Alex Dolly, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Rikki Stout, 4 Conor Keys, 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Jessie Williams, 18 Will Dennis, 19 Tom Allott, 20 Jamie Cooke.
