Rotherham Titans away day blues continued with a narrow 15-11 loss at Birmingham Moseley, leaving the South Yorkshire side still without an away victory in three attempts this season.
The contest was a tale of two halves, as it tends to be at Moseley, with the famous slope at Billesley Common often dictating who wins the half and it did again on this occasion.
Titans went in at the break 11-3 to the good after Lewis Wilson had crashed over after just two minutes and former Moseley fly half Sam Hollingsworth hit two successful penalties. His counterpart, Ben Penfold registered a 3-pointer for the hosts.
At halftime, maybe inside the Titans camp there was a belief that it was ‘easy’ and just running out for the second forty was all that was required.
If so, a rude awakening lurked around the corner, as the hosts used the slope expertly to work themselves firstly back into the game and then ahead.
By the hour mark second rower Aaron Croft and centre Oliver Morris both crossed the whitewash to give Moseley the lead.
Late on in the game Rotherham had their moments close to the line, but unfortunately they were unable to capitalise on them and as a result had to settle for a losing bonus point.
Commenting post-match, Titans Director of Rugby, Martin Jenkinson, said, “It was a difficult contest, Moseley have started the season well and it’s always difficult to take them on here on their own patch.
“It’s a strange set of emotions really; because on the one hand I feel like how did we not win that game; equally I could say how did we manage to get a point.
“Some of the play in the second half seemed to be a comedy of errors from both teams and games often turn on a series of incidents.
“The biggest incident in the game was the scrummage in the corner where we were pressing their line and then in one passage of play it’s a last-ditch tackle to save a try on our line and then their tails are up again.
“On a different day it could have been a different result, but we must start winning these close games.
“There are so many close games in this division and so many are decided by a single score and the art is to be on the right side of that single score.”
Referee: Llyr ApGeraint-Roberts
Attendance: 775
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Wilson (T), Hollingsworth (2P)
Birmingham Moseley: Crofts (T), Morris (T), Palmer (P, C)
Titans: 15 Sam Allan (Bunting 25), 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Tom Williams, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Dan Leake, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Sam Boxhall (Wilson 80), 1 Harry Whitfield (Toby Williams 29) (Whitfield 41) (Toby Williams 58), 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Reece Ward (Dennis 29) (Ward 41) (Dennis 58), 4 Elliott Ward (Preston-Routledge 60), 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Lewis Wilson (Laxton 61), 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Anthony Maka.
Replacements: 16 Toby Williams, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Dan Preston-Routledge, 19 Keifer Laxton, 20 Morgan Bunting.
Birmingham Moseley: 15 Cliffie Hodgson, 14 Aquile Smith, 13 Oliver Morris, 12 Kieran Joyce, 11 Mason Tonks, 10 Ben Palmer, 9 Jack Jolly (Arr 41), 1 Joe Foreman (Priest 66), 2 Peter Austin (Tanner 58), 3 Osman Dimen (Hunt 58), 4 Aaron Crofts (Dawes 50), 5 Danny Wright, 6 Michael Stephens, 7 Morgan Dawes (Monks 41) (Austin 80), 8 Buster Lawrence.
Replacements: 16 Ethan Priest, 17 Rhodri Tanner, 18 Alex Hunt, 19 Morgan Monks, 20 Johnny Arr.
