Titans looking to finish at home with a flourish

Rotherham Titans will look to round off their home campaign on a high, when they welcome Bishop’s Stortford to Clifton Lane for the first time on Saturday; kick-off is 2pm.

A victory for Rotherham would go a long way to seeing them secure a season-ending top 6 position; which when evaluated after the changes made pre-season to the playing and coaching team, should be considered a creditable achievement.

However, the visitors from Hertfordshire will come into the game as the form side in the division having won nine out of their last 10 outings. Moreover, last week’s victory away at Blackheath should serve as a stern warning to a Titans side that disappointed away to Cinderford.

Going into the match Rotherham have made four changes to their starting XV, with two changes each in the backs and forwards.

Player coach Joe Barker returns to action at inside centre for Harry Dunne, following his recovery from a hand injury. Whilst at scrum half Alex Dolly is given the nod over Connor Dever who drops to the bench.

In the pack Will Dennis comes in at tight head prop for Rikki Stout and in the boiler house Kieran Frost comes into the side for the injured Jamie Ure (shoulder).

Ahead of the game and acutely aware of the dangers that Stortford will present, Joe Barker explained, “We were very disappointed with our performance last week, particularly in our attack which was really poor. We struggled to get it going, we didn’t move the ball much and we made it easy for them to defend us.

“And that’s not really been us for much of this year and so it feels like we took a bit of a backwards step. However, it’s nothing that we don’t feel we can resolve and resolve quickly.

“The lads have worked hard this week and I have full confidence in them to turn it around and they’ll have to because I believe Bishop’s Stortford are one of the best teams in the league and there are coming into the game in fantastic form.

“They have a lot of talented players, they play a great brand of rugby and when they are flowing they are very difficult to defend against and they will present us with a real challenge.

“Having said that, I have full confidence in the boys and we know when we are at our best we can give any side in the league a run for their money and it would be great if we could give our supporters something to cheer about in our last game of the season at Clifton Lane.”

Titans: 15 Sam Allan, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Joe Barker, 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Will Dennis, 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Rikki Stout, 18 Conor Keys, 19 Connor Dever, 20 Harry Dunne.

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