Rotherham Titans are ready to be tested this weekend when they travel to Loughborough Students for round 12 of National 2 North; kick-off at the University Ground on Saturday is 2pm.
This encounter promises to be a tricky and no doubt close affair, as 5th placed Roth attempt to manage both the artificial playing surface and their in-form 7th placed opposition.
Loughborough will come into the game full of confidence having registered back-to-back bonus point victories in their last two outings, having overcome Huddersfield at home and Harrogate away, scoring nine tries in the process.
Indeed the last time the sides met Loughborough ran out 29-23 winners at Clifton Lane during the 2018/19 season in National 1 and as such Titans will not underestimate their task.
Rotherham too come into the game in decent shape having recorded 7 straight victories, although due to games being postponed, only 2 in that run have come away from Clifton Lane.
Going into the clash Rotherham have made just 2 changes to the starting XV which beat Tynedale 38-14 at home last week.
Across the backline and making his debut for the club is fly half Matt Minogue who comes in for the unavailable Lloyd Hayes. Whilst the one change in the pack sees a return for Theo Nwosu-Hope who comes into the back row for Marcus Payne.
Commenting ahead of the match Titans Adam Byron said:
“I was at Loughborough myself and so I am going back to a team I played for, not for a few years it has to be said; when I was there they were very much starting up their league side and I’m sure things are very different now.
“But they will be exactly as we will expect them to be; they will want to move the ball because that is what they are very good at. There will be a lot of quick taps, they’ll want to keep the ball in play, they’ll want to move us around and they will prepare for us in a detailed and in-depth manner.
“So we know what to expect and we know how to counteract that and we have prepared for that sort of game. But for me it always comes back to us in terms of how we perform and how we go about the things we want to do. If we get those things right then we will put ourselves in a position to get the right result.”
Titans: 15 Tom Lewis, 14 Connor Field, 13 Mat Clark, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Matt Minogue, 9 Sam Boxhall, 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 Colin Quigley, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Marcus Payne, 20 Sam Pocklington.
