Rotherham Titans first ever visit to Cinderford ended in disappointment as they crashed 36-19 to the South West side at Dockham Road.
The victory for Cinderford all but guarantees them their place in National 1 for next term whilst Titans aim of a top 6 finish took a bit of a knock.
Rotherham will have been disappointed with their overall performance, as all too often they gave away possession at crucial times.
Titans never lead at any point in the game but were still within touching distance at the break as they went in trailing by just five points at 17-12. Tries from number 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor and winger Connor Field gave the South Yorkshire side hope that they could mount a second half fightback to make it three wins on the bounce.
However, that challenge never really materialised as the hosts scored a further three second half tries to Titans solitary effort from flanker Zak Poole.
Titans did create pressure close to the host’s line late on from the scrum, as they attempted to pick up a 4-try bonus point. However, the opportunity was lost and the Titans went pointless for the first time in 11 games.
Speaking post-match Titans Joe Barker explained, “We are disappointed with how things have gone today, especially after the last 2 weeks where the boys have worked so hard for two very good wins. We’ve shown some promising signs recently, but I think today we seem to have taken a backwards step and that’s the disappointing thing.
“It wasn’t down to a lack of effort, you’ll never get that from this set of lads because they always put in the graft, but mentally we just weren’t at the races today.
“I think we were strong defensively in the first half apart from the odd individual error, but as a defensive unit the team did well. Unfortunately in attack we just couldn’t get our game going as well as we know we can and I think that’s what let us down.
“Fair play to Cinderford though, they retained the ball very well and kept it from us for prolong periods of the game. Then when we did manage to get some possession, all too often we gave it away cheaply and when you do that at this level it’s very difficult to win games of rugby.
“We’ve now got to dust ourselves down and work really hard in training so we can finish of our home campaign with a positive performance against Bishop’s Stortford. I think overall we’ve had an impressive year from these young lads and it would be great if we could finish on a high in front of our fantastic supporters.”
Referee: James O'Brien
Attendance: 360
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Nagle-Taylor (T), Field (T), Poole (T), Irvine (2C)
Cinderford: Babarinsa (2T), Hone (T), Ryan (T), Mullis (T), Hemming (4C, P)
Titans: 15 Sam Allan, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 55), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 55), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Keys 65), 5 Jamie Ure (Preston-Routledge 79), 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Conor Keys, 19 Alex Dolly, 20 Ellis Abrahams.
Cinderford: 15 Alex Frame, 14 Sam Smith (Pointon 72), 13 Terence Babarinsa, 12 Jack Hayes, 11 Reuben Norville, 10 Liam Hemming, 9 Ewan Fenley, 1 George Porter (Capt.) (Smart 62), 2 Jack Preece, 3 Tim Brockett (Elliot 40), 4 George Evans, 5 Dale Lemon, 6 Aaron Ryan (Bennett 70), 7 Daniel Broady (Mullis 58), 8 Harry Hone.
Replacements: 16 Joe Smart, 17 James Elliot, 18 Joe Mullis, 19 Matthew Bennett, 20 Danny Pointon.
