This memorable game from the 2013/14 season saw Rotherham travel to the Memorial Ground to take on the might of Bristol, in the Greene King IPA Championship play-off semi-final 1st leg.
The game was shown live on Sky Sports, with Rotherham putting in a tremendous shift to run the Championship favourites close, before eventually going down 17-14. The result set up nicely the 2nd leg that would take place the following weekend at Abbeydale Park, Sheffield.
Titans’ points on the day came from a Jamie Broadley try and three penalty kicks from Juan Pablo Socino.
Check out all the scores from the game HERE
Post match coaches comments:
Lee Blackett: “There was a reason why Bristol chose to play the first leg at home; they wanted to try and put the tie to bed. So we came here with the aim of making sure there would be something on the game next week and that’s what’s we’ve done. It’s not often that you win a two legged cup tie in the first leg and we’re content of where we are at half time.
“The boy’s attitude was fantastic, but we had loads of opportunities that we didn’t finish and I think there’s plenty to work on ahead of the 2nd leg. Having said that, the main thing is we’ve kept ourselves in the tie and now we can look forward.
“We spoke in the week of how important the first 20 minutes were going to be, as in our two previous league games against them, we were virtually out of them inside the first 20. I thought our boys were fantastic in that opening period; we won the toss and that’s why we went with the wind in the first half.
“To be 9-0 up after that little spell was an outstanding effort from the lads, especially when you consider we didn’t have a great amount of possession. We had to work real hard in the first half and I thought our defence was outstanding and I was proud of the effort the boys gave.
“I was really disappointed with the two yellow cards we received, it cost the team heavily and they were both correct decisions by the referee. So we’ll move on and we’ll try to improve, but we’ve got to keep fifteen men on the field for the full eighty minutes next week. Because as we all saw, we conceded three tries in those two ten minute spells. If that happens again we are going to struggle.
“For me, it would have been really harsh on us if we hadn’t come away with that final score, because the boys had worked so hard and created plenty of opportunities throughout the game. Jordan made a really good decision to kick through and Jamie Broadley did what all good finishes do by getting on the end of it to score. Jamie’s done that for years at different levels, he’s a natural finisher and we’ve seen a lot of that from him in the last couple of weeks.
“The game next week is now set up nicely and it’s going to be a massive occasion for us. We’ve done everything we could have done at Bristol; now we’ve got to take it back to Abbeydale and make Abbeydale our home and then that can make a massive difference for the return leg.
“We’ve just played our biggest game for ten years, but next Saturday’s game is now even bigger. We have the opportunity of reaching the final and potentially going into the Premiership, which is crazy from where we’ve come from at the start of the year.
“So I’d say to all our supporters please get to Abbeydale and give these boys all your support, just as you have done up and down the country all season long. You really can be the difference and in close games you are the 16th man.”
Attendance: 5,839
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Yellow Card: Thomas-Brown & Williamson (Titans)
Titans: Broadley (T), Socino (3P)
Bristol: Cortes (T), Eves (T), Eadie (T), Robinson (1C)
Titans: 15 Sean Scanlon, 14 Jamie Broadley, 13 Joel Gill (Davies 53), 12 Jack Roberts, 11 Michael Keating, 10 Juan Pablo Socino, 9 Charlie Mulchrone (Capt.) (White 74), 1 Robin Hislop (Williams 66), 2 Tom Cruse, 3 Colin Quigley (Tampin 66), 4 Tom Holmes, 5 Josh Thomas-Brown, 6 Alex Rieder, 7 Jack Preece, 8 Alfie To’oala (Williamson 62).
Replacements: 16 Ben Morris, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Mark Tampin, 19 Ed Williamson, 20 Jordan Davies, 21 Dan White, 22 Dallan Murphy.
Bristol: 15 Auguy Slowik (Hughes 66), 14 George Watkins, 13 Jack Tovey, 12 Luke Eves, 11 Andy Short, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Ruki Tipuna (Baldwin 76), 1 Kyle Traynor, 2 Rhys Lawrence (Johnston 60), 3 Gaston Cortes (Hall 60), 4 Ben Glynn, 5 Mark Sorenson (Capt.), 6 Nick Koster, 7 Ross Rennie, 8 Marco Mama (Eadie 62).
Replacements: 16 Ross Johnston, 17 James Hall, 18 Glen Townson, 19 Mitch Eadie, 20 Luke Baldwin, 21 Adrian Jarvis, 22 Adam Hughes.
Check out all the scores from the game HERE
