Rotherham Titans are all set for an intense Yorkshire derby this weekend when they host West Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield RUFC in round 13 of National 2 North; kick-off at Clifton Lane this Saturday is 2pm.
Both teams will come into the game full of confidence having enjoyed some success in recent outings.
Despite their league position being closer to the bottom than the top, Huddersfield will arrive in the south of the county on the back of back-to-back wins over Harrogate and Sheffield Tigers and following a slow start to the season appear now to be finding their feet in the division.
Rotherham too appear to be growing as a squad; their impressive 71-5 away win at Loughborough Students last week will not have dented their confidence as they aim to defend their unbeaten status this week.
The teams have met only once before in league action and that will have no bearing on this fixture as that took place 31 years ago at Clifton Lane during the 1989/90 season in North 2. Indeed it was Huddersfield that ran out winners that day by 18-10, but that was the only league defeat Roth suffered that season as they ran out champions.
Going into this one Titans have made just two changes to their Starting XV which sees Lloyd Hayes returning at outside centre for Mat Clark and Marcus Payne coming in for Theo Nwosu-Hope. Returning from injury and on the bench is Jack Bergmanas and should he get on the pitch it will be his first appearance of the season, so it’s a big welcome back to Bergy.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s clash Titans’ Adam Byron said:
“It was very pleasing to put an 80-minutes performance together against Loughborough last week and it will be important that we do so again against Huddersfield.
“Huddersfield are on a run of a couple of good wins and we know they’ll present us with a different set of questions and we’ll have to make sure we have all the answers and to be ready for whatever they throw at us. We’ll need to react and problem solve within the game as we did last week.
“We can’t make assumptions about our opponents based on league position; that is a very hazardous way of approaching games. Huddersfield are a very experienced at National 2, they have been there a long time and they have players who know how to win games.
“So it is a different test to last week as they will rely a lot more on the size of their forwards as they look to take us on in that area.
“It’ll be great to be back at home in front of our supporters at Clifton Lane this week; they have been outstanding in supporting the boys all season and hopefully they’ll do so again.”
Titans: 15 Tom Lewis, 14 Connor Field, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 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 Marcus Payne, 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Colin Quigley, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Keifer Laxton, 20 Jonny West.
