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.
Photo courtesy of BSRFC