Rotherham Titans returned to winning ways as they were made to battle hard for their 22-17 win over Cambridge at a blustery Clifton Lane.
Titans outscored the opposition by three tries to two, with Anthony Maka, Dan Leake and Zak Poole all crossing the whitewash in the first period.
Disappointingly, Rotherham were unable to add to their try tally as they lost the second half 3-0, but ultimately they secured an important win against a good team.
Titans came racing out of the blocks and took the lead as early as the third minute, when a catch and drive close to the visitors line was finished off by number 8 Anthony Maka, to give the home side a perfect start.
Paradoxically however, despite Rotherham enjoying lots of good spells in a highly competitive game, it was Cambridge went ahead, after executing their limited opportunities in clinical fashion to score two tries in the space of 8 minutes, through livewire scrum half Finlay Creighton.
On 18 minutes following a period of forward pressure, Creighton dummied and then sniped over from close range. Then on 26 minutes, after flanker Alex Rayment made a beak following some sloppy defending at the breakdown, Creighton was on hand again to run in under the sticks.
Rotherham needed to respond quickly and this they did a minute later when Anthony Maka collected a clearance kick just inside his own half. Maka then galloped downfield and traded passes with full back Sam Allan before sending in Dan Leake in the left hand corner for a fine try.
Morgan Bunting, on for Sam Hollingsworth who’d took a slight knock earlier in the game, nosed Titans 15-14 ahead on the half hour mark with a straightforward penalty from in front of the posts.
Rotherham then extended their advantage 3 minutes later when Captain Zak Poole collected on the 10 metre line and following a show and go charged home with good pace and strength for an excellent score. Bunting’s conversion made it 22-14.
The second half didn’t go according to what Titans would have had in mind at the break. Indeed the only score of the second period came in injury time when Cambridge centre, Ben Penfold knocked over a penalty to give the visitors a well-deserved losing bonus point.
Nevertheless, Titans will reflect on this one as a good win against a very capable side.
Commenting post-match, Titans Director of Rugby, Martin Jenkinson, said, “It was a hard-fought win; there were two distinct halves of rugby which were very different from each other. I thought we played some outstanding rugby in the first half and Harry Whitfield was devastating early on.
“We went in at 22-14 and it never crossed any of our minds that we would be nilled in the second half. However, the important thing is we have won two at home, but we need to be getting maximum points at home.
“It’s generally pleasing, but it’s tinged with we probably let ourselves down a bit with not getting that fourth try and the bonus point.
“We got ourselves on a couple of occasions into good positions, but then the line-out broke down.
“We had a couple of overthrows in the wrong areas and that’s your opportunities gone and against good sides like Cambridge you don’t get that many opportunities. So you have to take them and that was the story of the second half.
“However, the boys’ defensive effort was absolutely herculean, it was massive, but there was too much of it. We were defending because when we got ourselves into position we gave the ball away too cheaply and then they were back on to us again.
“So whilst our defence was superb, we don’t want to be doing so much of it; we want to be at the other end of the park.”
Referee: Ben Rayner
Attendance: 572
Yellow Card: Hutchinson (Cambridge)
Titans: Maka (T), Leake (T), Poole (T), Bunting (2C, P)
Cambridge: Creighton (2T), Penfold (2C, P)
Titans: 15 Sam Allan, 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Tom Williams (Hollingsworth 55), 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Dan Leake, 10 Sam Hollingsworth (Bunting 25), 9 Connor Dever, 1 Harry Whitfield (Toby Williams 31), 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Reece Ward (Dennis 47), 4 Elliott Ward (Laxton 67), 5 Kieran Frost (Preston-Routledge 61), 6 Zak Poole (Capt.), 7 Keifer Laxton (Wilson 55), 8 Anthony Maka.
Replacements: 16 Toby Williams, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Dan Preston-Routledge, 19 Lewis Wilson, 20 Morgan Bunting.
Cambridge: 15 Andrew Henderson (Capt.), 14 James Martin (Rawlings 31), 13 Ned Brown, 12 Benjamin Penfold, 11 Matthew Hema, 10 Joe Tarrant (Rayner 65), 9 Finlay Creighton (Adamson 61), 1 David Langley (Rukhadze 31), 2 Michael Mayhew, 3 Henry Peck (Langley 45) (Peck 59), 4 Kailus Hutchinson (Conquest 45), 5 Gareth Baxter, 6 Ciaran Moore (Rayment 61), 7 Alex Rayment (Martin 38), 8 Ben Adams.
Replacements: 16 Ramaz Rukhadze, 17 Robert Conquest, 18 Louis Rawlings, 19 Rhodri Adamson, 20 Lawrence Rayner.
