Rotherham Titans were agonisingly denied a famous win at Brickfields in the 84th minute when Plymouth Albion flanker George Mills barged over in the corner.
Titans had worked miracles to claw their way back into a contest that appeared to be a lost cause as early as the 25th minute as the hosts raced into a 19-0 lead, following a brace of tries from winger Josh Skelcey and one from blind side flanker Sam Daly.
Titans would have been disappointed with their lacklustre start and the portents for them were as dark as the clouds which loitered around Brickfields for much of the afternoon, before they eventually burst on full time.
However, a chink of light appeared on the half hour mark as Titans never-say-die attitude was rewarded when skipper Zak Poole showed terrific determination to stretch his way over following a period of forward pressure close to the Albion line.
The half time oranges would have tasted a little less sour on the back of Poole’s try as Titans went in at the break trailing 19-7.
Following a re-grouping at the interval Rotherham came out for the second period looking significantly sharper than they did at the outset.
On 46 minutes they nibbled into Albion lead when fly half Sam Hollingsworth slotted a straightforward penalty over from in front of the sticks.
Then a minute later Hollingsworth was in the thick of the action again; this time a superb deft chip over the top saw him collect his own kick, before slipping a neat pass to scrum half Connor Dever who showed terrific pace to race in from 40 metres. Hollingsworth conversion drew Titans to within two points at 19-17.
Disappointingly Rotherham ‘knocked off’ shortly afterwards which allowed the hosts to press deep inside their 22 and following a series of pick and goes, Albion fly half Dan Mugford collected to cross the whitewash.
Titans continued to look lively however and there was a threat about their work going forwards. Hollingsworth added another 3-pointer on the hour mark to reduce Rotherham’s arrears to 26-20.
Inside the final five minutes Rotherham thought they had their third try of the game to reduce their deficit to 1 point with the conversion to come, when Zak Poole charged over after collecting a loose ball. However, the officials deemed he knocked on over the line!
Two minutes from time a rampant Titans pack stole Albion ball at scrum time through number 8 Anthony Maka; the big back-rower showed huge determination and great strength to power over from the base to make it a one point game with the conversion to come. Replacement fly half Morgan Bunting stepped up to the plate to calmly slot over the extras and give Rotherham the lead.
However, with the penultimate play of the match and following a series of Albion pick and goes in the 84th minute, George Mills crossed to seal a barnstormer of a game for Plymouth.
A disappointed Anthony Posa reflected post-match, “Sport can be very cruel, but as I’ve just said to the boys now, we were not good enough in the first half, especially on defence where we got out played physically.
“However, at half time we addressed that and we took a bit of ownership and I’m really proud of the boys’ efforts in the second half. To come back from 19-0 down, then 19-7 down at half time and to put us in a position to win the game was outstanding.
“There were a couple of 50-50 calls that didn’t go our way. The yellow card hurt us and I’m sure if we’d had a TMO there would have been a different outcome because he’s attempted to catch it, but sometimes decisions go for you and sometimes they don’t.
“But we put ourselves in a position to suffer from those calls. We just have to be a bit more switched on and not give piggy-backs, because every score they got today was from a mistake by us. So there’s a way we can correct it without pointing the finger at anyone else.
“But I was extremely proud of the second half performance from the boys and it was a case of what might have been. It’s just gut-wrenching to lose after we put ourselves in a position to win it after being so far behind in the game.
“In the cold light of day we’ll take some consolation in taking a point from this one, as we know how difficult it is to come down here and get the win. But we can’t have patches like we had today in the opening 20 minutes where we were poor, because once you give any team in this division a 19 point start it’s a long way back.”
Referee: Ben Russell
Attendance: 964
Yellow Card: Hollingsworth (Titans)
Titans: Poole (T), Dever (T), Maka (T), Hollingsworth (2C, 2P), Bunting (1C)
Plymouth Albion: Skelcey (2T), Daly (T), Mills (T), Mugford (T, 4C)
Titans: 15 Tom Bacon, 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne (Bunting 60), 11 Dan Leake, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Toby Williams (Whitfield 52), 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Will Dennis (R Ward 60), 4 Elliott Ward (Preston-Routledge 79), 5 Dan Preston-Routledge (Wilson 65), 6 Lewis Wilson (North 36), 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Anthony Maka.
Replacements: 16 Agustin Defelitto, 17 Harry Whitfield, 18 Reece Ward, 19 Alfie North, 20 Morgan Bunting.
Plymouth Albion: 15 Connor Eastgate (Squire 75), 14 Josh Skelcey, 13 Dan Powell, 12 Javiah Pohe, 11 Alex Ducker, 10 Dan Mugford, 9 Pierre Thomspon (Setter 47), 1 Luke Chapman (Higgins 52), 2 Max Norey (Salter 59), 3 Dan Pullinger (Chapman 68) (Ingoldsby 79), 4 Dan Collier, 5 John Kelly, 6 Sam Daly, 7 George Mills, 8 Herbie Stupple (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Jamie Salter, 17 Pete Ingoldsby, 18 Cam Setter, 19 Jack Higgins, 20 Dean Squire.
