Rotherham Titans suffered a disappointing 23-6 home defeat to Richmond at a wet and windy Clifton Lane.
Richmond, who were relegated from the Championship last term, managed the tricky conditions much the better and executed their simple game plan to great effect.
The London based outfit outscored the Titans by two tries to none, to maintain their position at the top of the league.
Rotherham now need to regroup ahead of their big local derby next weekend against Hull Ionians.
The wet conditions and heavy pitch probably suited the Richmond style more than it did Rotherham’s. However, as the game wore on the greater physicality shown by the league leaders ultimately saw them home to a comfortable victory.
Richmond’s experienced pack of forwards had the edge throughout, particularly so after opening the scoring on 12 minutes through loose head prop Alex Banfield, following a series of pick and drives inside the Titans 22. Full back Rob Kirby converted the dot down and added two further penalties during the first half.
Rotherham did have some bright moments in the first period, but all too often at crucial times poor decision making or poor execution, frustratingly let them down.
With the final play of the half however Rotherham put a spell of pressure together through their pack which had the visitors scrambling around in defence at sixes and sevens and although unable to cross the whitewash Rotherham did get on the board through a Sam Hollingsworth penalty.
Coming out for the second half Titans hopes were high that a comeback was on the cards, particularly with the gusty breeze now in their favour.
Those hopes received a further boost just five minutes in when another 3-pointer from Hollingsworth reduced Rotherham’s arrears to 13-6.
Unfortunately for the South Yorkshire side, that was about as good as it would get!
Last season’s Championship side showed their experience by slowly exerting control at the set piece and the breakdown, which in turn set the platform for what was to follow.
Richmond extended their lead on 50 minutes when a powerful catch and drive was finished off by hooker Ross Grimstone and converted by Kirby. The latter added a penalty two minutes later to stretch his side’s advantage to 23-6.
Although Titans would not score again, they do deserve some credit as they ensured neither would their opponents.
Commenting post-match a disappointed joint head coach, Matt Smith, explained, “It was a tough game against the league leaders and one of the key aspects for me was the amount of mistakes that we made compared to them. I think we both had similar game plans, but Richmond executed theirs better than we did.
“To be fair Richmond didn’t make too many errors; I didn’t think they did much, but they didn’t need to because our errors gave them enough opportunities.
“I thought at times we got ourselves into the right areas; in the first half we had a driving maul that got held up, but we came away with 3 points which was positive.
“In the second half on the couple of occasions that we got into their 22 we couldn’t turn that pressure into points and that’s probably the most disappointing aspect that we couldn’t turn our positive moments into points.
“The difference was when Richmond got into our 22 they did come away with points.
“We are very frustrated with how we performed, hopefully the boys can learn from today’s experience, how to see games out and how to suffocate teams, because that’s what Richmond did really well today.”
Referee: Charlie Gayther
Attendance: 517
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Hollingsworth (2P)
Richmond: Banfield (T), Grimstone (T), Kirby (3P, 2C)
Titans: 15 George Castledine (Bunting 50), 14 Tom Bacon, 13 Connor Field, 12 Tom Bullough, 11 Ben Robbins, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Toby Williams, 2 Agustin Defelitto (Bergmanas 25), 3 Will Dennis (Whitfield 15), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Waddington 66), 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Alfie North (Ward 50), 7 Lewis Wilson, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Harry Whitfield, 18 Elliott Ward, 19 Ben Waddington, 20 Morgan Bunting.
Richmond: 15 Rob Kirby (Dennett 73), 14 Dan Kelly, 13 Cameron Mitchell (Capt.), 12 Giles Bromley-Martin, 11 Hamish Graham, 10 Tom Hodgson, 9 Jamie Gibbs (Dabell 64), 1 Alex Banfield (Green 72), 2 Ross Grimstone (Gibbings 69), 3 Ken Dowding, 4 Byron Hodge, 5 Max Crawford, 6 Jake Parker (Nixon 73), 7 Toby Saysell, 8 Jesse Liston.
Replacements: 16 Luke Green, 17 Charlie Gibbings, 18 Ryan Nixon, 19 Toby Dabell, 20 Lewis Dennett.
