Rotherham Titans would have been distraught to have lost 31-24 at home to Bishop’s Stortford, after dominating for large periods of the game.
Titans however, can only blame themselves for the defeat after all too often poor decision making, a lack of execution and ill-discipline all conspired to cost them what would have been an important victory.
From the off with a kick that went out on the full, until the end where the visitors scored the winning points in the final play of the game, Rotherham will look back and reflect on the number of points they “gave” Stortford in their quest for victory.
A poor first half effort from Titans saw them trail at the break 17-12 after going behind as early as the second minute after Bishop’s centre James Ayrton strolled through with ease.
Titans finally got on the board through number 8 Anthony Maka on 18 minutes as he dotted down under the posts. Unfortunately for Sam Hollingsworth, his conversion was charged down to leave the hosts trailing by two points.
Stortford’s lead was extended to five point just moments later when fly half George Cullen slotted over a penalty.
Once again though Rotherham bounced back when second rower Kieran Frost showed good awareness and strength to barge his way over and when Hollingsworth tagged over the extra Titans held the lead for the first time at 12-10.
That lead however lasted less than 3 minutes as James Ayrton sailed in again, and again it was all too easy as far as Rotherham were concerned, and when George Cullen converted the visitors went 17-12 to the good.
The opening quarter of the second half brought out the best of Rotherham as they dominated in every facet of the game and during this spell they scored two tries.
The first one came on 45 minutes as Anthony Maka powered over from close range and the second came following a dominant spell of forward pressure which resulted in replacement prop Harry Whitfield going over in the corner to give Titans a 24-17 edge.
Again though, Rotherham couldn’t hold onto their lead and within four minutes Stortford’s full back Nick Hankin finished off a nice backs move to level things up at 24 each following Cullen’s conversion.
And although it was Rotherham who enjoyed the majority of possession in the time which remained; in the final play of the match Bishop’s winger Josh Stannard finished off a counter attack in the corner to clinch the game and break the hearts of the home side.
A disappointed Steve Salvin speaking on the pitch at full time said, “We are bitterly disappointed not to have won the game, but what I would say is I don’t feel like we deserved to win it.
“We put ourselves in a position to win the game, we were 7 points up with less than 10 minutes left and the key thing there is you have to have the ability to see out the game and we weren’t able to do that.
“We were poor in the first half, we came out for the second half and we were much improved, but I think ultimately what’s cost us is our ill-discipline in the first half and our inability to convert pressure into points in the second half.
“So I don’t feel hard done by, I feel like we’ve got what we deserved today, but the positive is we’ve taken two points and that has closed the gap at the bottom to four points.”
Referee: Charlie Gayther
Attendance: 462
Yellow Card: Thacker (Bishop’s Stortford)
Titans: Maka (2T), Frost (T), Whitfield (T), Hollingsworth (2C)
Bishop’s Stortford: Ayrton (2T), Hankin (T), Stannard (T), Cullen (4C, P)
Titans: 15 Tom Benjamin, 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Tom Bullough, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Toby Williams (Whitfield 60), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Newborn 60), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Kieran Frost (North56), 6 Lewis Wilson 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Anthony Maka.
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Harry Whitfield, 18 Alfie North, 19 Kiefer Laxton, 20 Sam Boxhall.
Bishop’s Stortford: 15 Nick Hankin, 14 Josh Stannard, 13 Sam Winter (Capt.), 12 James Ayrton, 11 Chris Smith (Linney 56), 10 George Cullen, 9 Tom Banks (Gliksten 60), 1 Louis Castiglione, 2 Harrison King (Huppatz 70), 3 Kieran Sassone (McCrone 70), 4 James Thacker, 5 Tom Lewis, 6 Luis Ball (Banks 64), 7 Dan Elsom, 8 Charlie Kingham.
Replacements: 16 Miles Huppatz, 17 Tom McCrone, 18 Rory Banks, 19 Joss Linney, 20 Al Gliksten.
Photo Credit: Gareth Siddons