Rotherham Titans maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a hard-fought, but well-deserved 27-24 win over Hull Ionians on a glorious sun-soaked afternoon at Brantingham Park.
Tries from Matty Drennan, Lloyd Hayes, Callum Bustin and Theo Nwosu-Hope ensured Rotherham picked up the bonus point win to keep them joint top of Nat 2 North with Sedgley Park.
However, once again the South Yorkshire side had to demonstrate their resilience and mental toughness as for the fifth consecutive game they found themselves behind at half time.
As expected, Ionians flew out of the blocks with great emotion and intensity and as a result found themselves 10-0 ahead just after the 20-minute mark, following an early penalty from fly half Ben Smith and then a pick and go try from tighthead prop Ben Bell, which Smith converted.
On the half hour and almost with Titans first foray into the I’s 22, they came away with a try after good work from the backs and forwards took play up close to the line, before scrum half Matty Drennan picked up from the base to dive over. Jonny West narrowly missed the extras.
Back came Ionians though as Roth continued to struggle to get a foothold in the game and five minutes before the break I’s extended their advantage when on-loan centre Jack Townend exploited a gap in Roth’s defence to race through for a nice try. Smith converted to send Ionians in at the break leading 17-5.
Roth needed a stronger start to the second period and this they managed as their own work-rate and intensity lifted.
Just 4 minutes in and Titans had their second try of the game when Lloyd Hayes collected on the edge of the I’s 22 and proceeded to run around, then through the defence to touch down in the corner for an unconverted try.
From this point forward the game was pretty much dominated by Rotherham and within ten minutes the scores were level after number 8 Callum Bustin peeled off a driving maul close to the line to score near the corner. Lloyd Hayes converted from out wide to make it 17-17.
Despite Roth now being in the ascendancy, Ionians tenaciousness in defence meant the South Yorkshire side had to wait until 10 minutes from time before they took the lead.
The bonus point try for Roth came when Theo Nwosu-Hope charged down a clearance kick inside the I’s 22 and proceeded to collect and run in to dive over in the corner. Again Hayes nailed the conversion from out wide to make it 24-17.
Two minutes from Time Rotherham sealed the game when Hayes added a penalty following more impressive work from the Titans pack.
In added time Rotherham thought they had a fifth try, but unfortunately Theo Nwosu-Hope’s effort was deemed to have been knocked on.
As a consolation and perhaps deservedly so, with the final play of the game Ionians back rower George Mewburn scored his sides third try of the match for Smith to convert.
Speaking straight after the game Titans’ Steve Salvin said:
“We were way off it in the first 40 minutes; we came up against a side that was loaded with emotion, well organised, well coached and physical and for 40 minutes we weren’t even close. We were second best by some distance and to be honest we were probably lucky to get in at half time only 12 points down.
“We started the second half like we should have started the first half; we know we have quality, but quality is meaningless unless you are prepared to work hard. In the first 40 we didn’t work hard enough and in the second 40 we were so much better.
“We’ve done this 3 times away from home now, so you can’t question the boys’ resilience or mental toughness, but what you can probably question is how effective we are in the first 20 or 30 minutes of games away from home.
“We played well in the second half because we worked harder and that’s all we talked about at half time, working harder. We got outworked in the first half and I would argue we outworked them in the second half and as a result we won the game.”
Referee: Peter Caunt
Attendance: 425
Yellow Card: Challinor (Titans)
Titans: Drennan (T), Bustin (T), Nwosu-Hope (T), Hayes (T, P, 2C)
Hull Ionians: Bell (T), Townend (T), Mewburn (T), Smith (P, 3C)
Titans: 15 Tom Lewis, 14 George Tucker, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Jonny West, 9 Matty Drennan (Clark 40), 1 Charlie Capps (Pleasants 60), 2 Harry Newborn (Entressengle 60), 3 Rikki Stout (Quigley 67), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Zak Poole (Capt.), 7 Harry Williams (Nwosu-Hope 53), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 23 Francis Entressengle, 17 Alex Pleasants, 18 Colin Quigley, 19 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 20 Mat Clark.
Hull Ionians: 15 William Edwards, 14 Sam Wilson, 13 Josh Britton, 12 Jack Townend, 11 Nathan Hill, 10 Ben Smith, 9 Josh Bird (Metcalfe 53) Bird (61), 1 David Laverick (Bell 74), 2 Ben Stephenson, 3 Ben Bell (Morton 40), 4 Joe Makin, 5 Alex Campbell (Peters 40), 6 George Mewburn, 7 James Sanderson (Capt.) (C. Sanderson 74), 8 Callam Sanderson (Hudson 60).
Replacements: 16 Christopher Morton, 17 Thomas Peters, 18 Allan Hudson, 19 Kobby Opoku-Fofie, 20 William Metcalfe.
Photo courtesy of Gareth Lyons