Rotherham Titans go into round 20 of the Greene King IPA Championship as a relegated side, but are determined to finish the season on a high, when they take on London Scottish at the Athletic Ground; kick-off on Saturday is 3pm.
Following their defeat to Jersey Reds last time out Rotherham’s tenure in the top two levels of English rugby came to an end, which means for the first time in 22 years the South Yorkshire side will ply their trade at level three next term.
However, the Titans are determined to end their disappointing campaign on a high and show what head coach Nic Rouse believes, when he says. “We probably shouldn’t be in the position we are.”
However, as with all Championship games, there is no easy one and London Scottish will be equally determined to take the spoils at home.
Going into the game Rotherham have elected to go with the same starting XV that took on Jersey, whist coming in on the bench is winger Wesley Hamilton for Paolo Odogwu and scrum half Francisco Vieira for Will Porter.
Speaking ahead of the match Titans’ Nic Rouse explained, “We were pretty happy with our first half efforts against Jersey last time out; we created so many opportunities to score but just didn’t manage to finish them off for one reason or another. At the break we were confident we could finish the job off in the second half.
“Towards the end of the half we lost Jamie Cooke to a yellow card which I think was very harsh and you could argue a case for it not even being a penalty. If it had gone to a TMO I’m sure it wouldn’t have been a penalty, but that’s how things have gone for us this season and you just have to get on with the game.
“They scored early in the second half whilst we were a man short and that helped their confidence and at the end they ran in a few scores which was a bit disappointing. But the lads put in a great shift again and I was proud of every one of them. However, that result confirmed our relegation from the Championship and that’s a sad day for the club.
“This week we take on London Scottish and the boys are eager to put in another shift and I know we’ll turn up with a great attitude and try and get the right result. It won’t be easy because they have some good players and if you give them time and space they can be very dangerous and they can hurt you.
“However, I think this game gives us an opportunity to measure the progress that we believe we have made in recent times and it would be nice if we could make a statement which says we probably shouldn’t be in the position we are.”
Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Ben Foley, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Joe Barker, 11 Jake Henry, 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Rhodri Davies, 1 Toby Williams, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Rob Louw, 5 Adam Peters, 6 Dan Grange, 7 Charlie Maddison, 8 Tom Calladine (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Nic Dolly, 17 Tom Williams, 18 Brandon Palmer, 19 Tom Burns, 20 Wesley Hamilton, 21 Lee Millar, 22 Francisco Vieira.
