Rotherham Titans were bitterly disappointed to not get the win against top-end side Rams, as they were narrowly beaten 25-20 at Old Bath Road on a wet and blustery afternoon.
The fact Rotherham were so disappointed not to pick up a bonus point win, over one of the very best teams in the division, really does show how far this group has progressed since the turn of the year.
They now however, need to make sure they start to get over the line in these close encounters if they are to maintain their status in National 1 for next season.
The game itself swung one way then another throughout the 80 minutes.
Indeed the hosts took the lead as early as the third minute when flanker Tom Vooght barged his way over, with fly half Alex Seers converting and it would be fair to say the hosts deserved their lead.
In fact Rams enjoyed the bulk of play for most of the first quarter and only some aggressive defensive work by the Titans kept the Reading based outfit at bay.
However, just after the half hour Rotherham hit a purple patch and incredibly scored three tries before the half time oranges.
First up on 31 minutes was blindside flanker Lewis Wilson, who after some fine work from the Titans pack, which first saw Anthony Maka make some good ground, he was on hand to collect from Sam Boxhall to dot down under the posts. Connor Dever tagged over the extras to level things up at 7 apiece.
Just three minutes later and Titans went ahead when Tom Benjamin scored a scintillating try.
An initial break from Connor Dever inside the Rotherham half got them moving, before the ball was spread across the backline to Benjamin who collected whilst still in his own half. The flying fullback then evaded two Rams defenders before showing exceptional footwork to round Will Partington to score a brilliant try. Dever missed the difficult conversion from out wide.
Back came the hosts however and they levelled matters two minutes before the break when skipper Robbie Stapley dotted down from the base of a powerful scrum.
Undeterred Titans fought back with great determination as the game went into injury time.
From a line out on the hosts 22 the Rotherham’s pack powered forward before Anthony Maka broke away and took play up to the Rams line.
The ball came out to Connor Dever who neatly found winger Ben Robbins and he showed immense strength to bulldoze his way over for a terrific try to end the half and send his side in with a 17-12 advantage.
Playing with the slope in the second half Rams levelled the game at 17 each on 47 minutes when winger Jack Rossiter stepped inside from out wide to touch down; following what had been s sustained period of Rams forward pressure inside the Titans 22.
On the hour mark the hosts nosed 20-17 ahead from an Alex Seers penalty after Titans were unluckily adjudged to have made a high tackle, before Rotherham again levelled the score when Sam Hollingsworth added a penalty on 69 minutes, after referee Fergus Kirby disallowed a Rotherham try for a forward pass.
Four minutes from time Referee Kirby then sent Lewis Wilson to the bin for a technical offence and a minute later Rams ruthlessly exploited their man advantage to crash over through replacement forward Ross Crame.
In the final play of the game Rotherham looked dangerous 15 metres from the Rams line and with good momentum, as they powered forward looking for a bonus point victory. Unfortunately for them they knocked on at a crucial time and that was that.
Speaking on the pitch after the game, a disappointed Steve Salvin said, “I think this result against one of the best sides in the division shows how far this group has come in a short space of time, since the turn of the year. However, that doesn’t stop us from being immensely frustrated that whichever way you look at it, that should have been a five-point win for us today!
“We’ve made that evident to the players, they are hurting every bit as much as the coaches and the backroom staff, but how far we have come doesn’t make a great deal of difference at the moment because we should have come away with five points.
“Our discipline let us down, we gave away too many opportunities when we had field position; we either coughed-up the ball or we gave away a penalty, which in turn led to us giving them possession and territory. There were probably nine or ten instances of that when we could have built pressure, but we gave them an easy out through poor skill execution or poor discipline.
“So yes we have come a long way, but at some point we have to make these opportunities count and that’s why I’m so frustrated because it should have happened today. I’m sure when the emotion has drained out we’ll take a huge amount of positives from what the boys did against a very good side.”
Referee: Fergus Kirby
Attendance: 523
Yellow Card: Guttridge (Rams), Wilson (Titans)
Titans: Wilson (T), Benjamin (T), Robbins (T), Dever (1C), Hollingsworth (1P)
Rams: Vooght (T), Stapley (T), Rossiter (T), Crame (T), Seers (1C, 1P)
Titans: 15 Tom Benjamin, 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Tom Bacon, 10 Sam Hollingsworth (Boxhall 15) (Hollingsworth 55), 9 Connor Dever, 1 Harry Whitfield (Williams 41), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Newborn 63), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Lewis Wilson 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Anthony Maka (Waddington 61) (North 66).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Ben Waddington, 19 Alfie North, 20 Sam Boxhall.
Rams: 15 William Partington, 14 Jack Rossiter, 13 Kieran Leicester, 12 Andrew Humberstone, 11 Andrew Denham, 10 Alex Seers (Hayhow 63), 9 Ollie Cole, 1 Niall Kidd, 2 Ben Henderson (Moffitt 41), 3 James Baker (Zeiss 67), 4 Oliver Taylor, 5 Colin Thomson, 6 Jamie Guttridge (Crame 63), 7 Tom Vooght, 8 Robbie Stapley (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Ollie Moffitt, 17 Cameron Zeiss, 18 Ross Crame, 19 Connor Hayhow, 20 Jack Moates.
Photo Credit: Rams RFC