This memorable game from the 2013/14 season saw Rotherham host Connacht Eagles in a high-scoring encounter at Clifton Lane, in round 5 of the British & Irish Cup.
Titans put in an exciting display of running rugby, scoring 9 tries in a thrilling 59-3 win. Titans tries came from Laurence Pearce, Jamie Broadley, Alfie To’oala, Lloyd Hayes, Jack Roberts, Sean Scanlon, Ben Rath and a brace from Curtis Wilson, with Dallan Murphy adding 14 points from the tee.
The victory secured qualification for the B&I Cup quarter finals with a group game to spare, after Llanelli RFC beat Bedford Blues 44-15 at Parc y Scarlets.
Check out all the scores from the game HERE
Post Match Coaches Comments:
Lee Blackett: “We wanted to put in a performance and I thought we did that; I thought our first half display was the best 40 minutes we have had all season. To have qualified from this very tough group with a game to spare is testament of the boy’s quality. We wanted to be the first Rotherham squad to make the British & Irish Cup quarter finals and no one will be able to take that away from this special group of players.
“Fans always talk about the great Rotherham players of the recent past such as Sean Dougall, Semisi Taulava, Robin Copeland and Sam Dickinson and they are rightly regarded as great Rotherham players. But I think we have some boys here who are going to go on and reach those similar levels and I hope the fans make the most of them whilst we still have them at Clifton Lane.
“We made a couple of changes going into the game as we wanted to give a couple of the boys a little bit of game time who’d not had that much recently and I thought the boys who came in did very well. When boys come in like that they are eager to take their opportunity and it also helps with their development and from one to twenty two they all played well. I also wanted to help Ed Williamson’s development as a coach and he ran the session on Friday and he ran everything on the field today and that will help him enormously as he goes forward.”
Attendance: 1012
Referee: Craig Evans
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Pearce (T), Broadley (T), Wilson (2T), To’oala (T), Hayes (T), Roberts (T), Scanlon (T), Rath (T), Murphy (7C).
Connacht: Tadhg Leader (P).
Titans: 15 Sean Scanlon, 14 Jamie Broadley (Socino 60), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jack Roberts, 11 Curtis Wilson (Rath h/t), 10 Dallan Murphy, 9 Dan White, 1 Toby Williams (Dias 49), 2 Ben Sowrey (Cruse h/t), 3 Mark Tampin (Stout 49), 4 Ben Thomas (Preece 60), 5 Dan Sanderson (Capt.), 6 Alfie To’oala (Rieder 49), 7 Ali Birch, 8 Laurence Pearce.
Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Mike Dias, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Alex Rieder, 20 Jack Preece, 21 Juan Pablo Socino, 22 Ben Rath.
Connacht: 15 Tiernan O’Halloran, 14 Shane Layden, 13 Conor Finn, 12 Brian Murphy, 11 David Panter (Macauley 60), 10 Tadhg Leader (Parata 60), 9 Frank Murphy (Walsh 60), 1 Ronan Loughney (Reilly 60), 2 David Heffernan, 3 JP Cooney (Bealham 51), 4 Sean O’Brien (McCloskey 51), 5 Danny Qualter, 6 Mata Fi’fita (Rael 38), 7 Rory Moloney, 8 Eoghan Masterson.
Replacements: 16 James Rael, 17 Finlay Bealham, 18, Peter Reilly, 19 Aaron McCloskey, 20 Marcus Walsh, 21 Rory Parata, 22 Steve Macauley.
Check out all the scores from the game HERE
