Rotherham Titans shared a 10-try thriller against top six outfit Darlington Mowden Park, before eventually going down 41-27 at the Northern Echo Arena.
The result leaves Titans still 8 points adrift of Birmingham Mosely at the foot of the table with 10 games remaining, although 6 of those games are at Clifton Lane, starting with the visit of Chinnor on Saturday.
Rotherham can take some positives from defeat to the divisions leading point’s scorers, as the five tries they scored equalled the hosts tally and delivered them a hard-fought, but fully deserved bonus point.
Indeed, had the usually expert marksman from the tee, Sam Hollingsworth, had a more fortuitous afternoon with the boot, the result may have been a much closer affair, although to be fair to him, his shots off the plastic were just about all from out wide.
What Rotherham can be particularly pleased with however was 100% line-out success and a driving maul which dominated throughout.
Actually, both of Titans first half tries came via the driving maul, with skipper Zak Poole dotting down both times after tremendous work from the Rotherham pack.
Mowden’s first half points came with two tries from bulldozing number 8 Ollie Hodgson and one from flanker Callum Mackenzie; whilst classy fly half Warren Seals added 9 points from the tee.
Following an early Seals penalty at the beginning of the second period Rotherham added their third try through winger Ben Robbins, who showed blistering pace down the right wing to go over in the corner and when Hollingsworth nailed the difficult conversion Titans were within 10 points with over 30 minutes left.
Unfortunately for them however, during a five-minute spell of dominance between the 66th and 71st minutes Park’s Tom Marshall and Conrad Cade crossed the whitewash to secure the game.
Undeterred and showing a terrific amount of resilience and character Rotherham stormed back late on to score another two tries through lock forward Kieran Frost and a second for winger Ben Robbins.
Commenting afterwards, an upbeat Titans’ Director of Rugby, Martin Jenkinson, said, “Darlington are a very good outfit and are pretty much irresistible at home; that’s their sixth straight win on the bounce here and you could see what a good side they are.
“It was a big ask for our boys today and as everyone knows we’ve been under the cosh a lot of this season. However, I thought the lads reacted well to score five tries and to keep coming back and to get a point.
“That is the sort of fight, the sort of dog and the sort of attitude we need if we are going to get out of trouble at the bottom of the table and I am immensely proud of all of them.
“We know there’s going to be some hard fights ahead, but we are improving week on week and to come here and get a point is a good effort and whilst we are always trying to win every game, we are content with the work the lads have put in today.
“Prior to this game we took seven points from our previous three games and we have said to the boys if we can take seven points every three games, then we should be ok at the end of the season and that’s our target.
“Obviously a lot will hinge on our home fixtures and we know when Chinnor come to Clifton Lane it will be very hard, but we will be going for the win just like we do in every game.”
Referee: Llyr ApGeraint-Roberts
Attendance: 855
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Poole (2T), Robbins (2T), Frost (T), Hollingsworth (1C)
Darlington Mowden Park: Hodgson (2T), Mackenzie (T), Marshall (T), Cade (T), Seals (5C, 2P)
Titans: 15 Tom Bacon, 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Tom Bullough, 11 Connor Dever, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Toby Williams (Whitfield 35), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Newborn 60), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Ward 60), 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Lewis Wilson, 7 Alfie North (Waddington 12), 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Harry Whitfield, 18 Elliott Ward, 19 Ben Waddington, 20 George Castledine.
Darlington Mowden Park: 15 Paul Jarvis, 14 Brandon Asher-Wood, 13 Ben Frankland, 12 Ben Dixon, 11 Ollie Walker (McTurk 50), 10 Warren Seals (Law73), 9 Euan McKirdy, 1 Conrad Cade (Westwood 71), 2 Joe Duffy, 3 Jonas Humbert (Marshall 60), 4 Talite Vaioleti, 5 Joe Craggs, 6 George Stokes (Graham 70), 7 Callum Mackenzie, 8 Ollie Hodgson (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Scott Westwood, 17 Tom Marshall, 18 Guy Graham, 19 Garry Law, 20 Chris McTurk.
