Rotherham Titans will look to begin 2020 with a fresh start to their season when they welcome Plymouth Albion to Clifton Lane on Saturday for a 2pm kick-off.
The 2019 calendar year will be one Rotherham will want to consign to the delete folder as soon as possible, having won just nine and drawn one of their 30 fixtures.
The South Yorkshire outfit will be keen to not only kick-start the New Year, but indeed a new decade with a positive performance as they currently sit in the final relegation spot, nine points adrift of their nearest rivals Birmingham Moseley; meaning victory against Albion will be crucial for their ambitions of remaining in National 1 for next season.
However, as the old cliché tells us, there are no easy games in this division and in Plymouth Albion that is certainly true.
The South West side have demonstrated, when they get it right, they can be a real handful for most sides, as their recent away victory over top-of-the-table outfit Richmond showed.
Going into the game Rotherham have made 8 changes to the starting XV which lost at Sale just before Christmas, with 4 each coming in the forwards and backs.
Along the backline Tom Bacon returns at full back for Sam Allan, Tom Bullough returns from injury and comes in at outside centre, as Jamie Cooke moves onto the wing for Connor Field. Dan Leake comes in on the opposite wing for Ben Robbins and rounding off the changes Sam Boxhall is given the nod at scrum half as Connor Dever drops to the bench.
In the pack Will Dennis starts at tight head prop for the injured Reece Ward (knee), whilst a new second row combination of Kieran Frost and Elliott Ward come in for Dan Preston-Routledge and Will Hughes respectively and there’s a return from injury for Lewis Wilson who comes into the back row for Keifer Laxton.
Looking ahead to the game, Titans’ Martin Jenkinson, said, “We look forward to welcoming our friends from Plymouth. They are a traditional big west country club that we have always enjoyed our ‘exchanges’ with.
“They, like us, are probably under-achieving this season and also need a win.
“We will be doing our level best to ensure that it’s not here at Clifton Lane on Saturday.
“A key for us will be to start the game well; as in our last game at Sale we never ‘got out of the blocks’ and the affair was over within 20 minutes.
“That cannot happen again and it’s important that we don’t give Plymouth the time to settle on our home ground.”
Titans: 15 Tom Bacon, 14 Jamie Cooke, 13 Tom Bullough, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Dan Leake, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Toby Williams, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Will Dennis, 4 Kieran Frost, 5 Elliott Ward, 6 Zak Poole (Capt.), 7 Lewis Wilson, 8 Anthony Maka.
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 James Armitage, 18 Dan Preston-Routledge, 19 Alfie North, 20 Connor Dever.
