Rotherham Titans are fully prepared for a battle when they host Hull RUFC this weekend in round 9 of Nat 2 North; kick-off on Saturday at Clifton Lane is 2pm.
There’s little doubt that Hull will represent a huge challenge at the weekend as one look at the league table and their previous results will testify.
Hull currently sit joint top of the league with Sedgley Park on 35 points and can boast the meanest defence in the division as they concede just 9.25 points per game on average. Their sole defeat of the season came early on in round 2 where they narrowly lost on the artificial pitch at unbeaten side Stourbridge.
Nevertheless, Rotherham will relish the challenge presented by their Yorkshire rivals as they too look to continue in a rich vein of form.
Titans remain unbeaten, having won 6 and drawn 1, but have played a game less than Hull due to last week’s postponement at Stourbridge, due to a Covid outbreak in the host’s camp.
Therefore the game looks set to be a cracker between two top sides and with both teams boasting strong forward packs; this one is probably not going to be one for the faint-hearted.
Going into the clash Rotherham have made 4 changes to the starting XV that beat Luctonians last time out.
The sole change across the back line sees Tom Lewis start at full back, as George Tucker moves across onto the wing for Jamie Cooke, who took a knock to his head against Luctonians.
Up front Harry Newborn returns at hooker for Fran Entressengle and Rikki Stout is given the nod over Colin Quigley for the tighthead birth. Matt Smith’s return in the second row sees Theo Nwosu-Hope move into the back row for Keifer Laxton.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans’ Steve Salvin said:
“We were disappointed not to play our game against Stourbridge last week as I thought we were in a pretty good place, but obviously safety and people’s health comes first and it was called off for the right reasons.
“In terms of having that week off we’ll only know after the game against Hull if that has been helpful or not. You could argue we’ll be a bit fresher or you could argue that Hull have consistency and momentum because they played last Saturday, but hopefully the week off means that we are fresh and raring to go.
“Hull are an excellent side and they have a very good all-round game. They have a big, powerful pack of forwards and they know how to play the areas of the field appropriately. They score a lot of tries and have racked up some very good scores and are clearly very well coached.
“Statistically they have a very good defence and everything I’ve seen from them backs up the stats. They are very solid defensively and it would appear they really buy into each other as a group.
“Hopefully though we can identify one or two areas where we can get at them in terms of our attack, because we also have the capabilities to rack-up a good number of points and so it’s exciting to face such a stern challenge in what will be a full-blooded Yorkshire derby in front of a raucous crowd.”
Titans: 15 Tom Lewis, 14 Connor Field, 13 Mat Clark, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 George Tucker, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Jonny West, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Rikki Stout, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Fran Entressengle, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Colin Quigley, 19 Marcus Payne, 20 Sam Pocklington.
