Titans first pre-season game of 2021 brought home the harsh realities of life, as they crashed to a 61-12 defeat to an accomplished looking Sale FC side at Heywood Road, on what was a wet afternoon in the North West.
The pitch however was in perfect condition following significant investment from the hosts, which has left them with a near-perfect surface for their speedy backs to display their skills.
And that they did as former Titan Fergus Mulchrone steered the ship magnificently, as he pulled the strings with great effect.
Going into the game however, Titans would have been full of confidence they would at least match their higher-league opponents, despite there being no scrums in the game. And for much of the first half they did, although the score line of 28-5 to Sale may have suggested otherwise.
Titans sole try in the opening period came from the impressive back five forward Theo Nwosu-Hope as he dotted down following a powerful drive from a line out close to the line.
Rotherham made a raft of changes for the second half and a period of adjustment was needed. Sale however stepped up their intensity and continued to add to their tally on a regular basis.
To their credit Rotherham never stopped putting in the effort and late on collected a consolation try from another driving maul close to the line through back rower Harry Williams. Jonny West nailed the conversion to end a tough afternoon for the South Yorkshire outfit.
Speaking on the pitch afterwards, Titans head coach, Steve Salvin said, “The positive thing that we can take away from the game is it’s a massive wake-up call.
“We came here and we probably approached it as if we were the favourites to win and that was never going to be the case coming to a well-established National 1 club.
“I think the big takeaway for us is we have to understand that to play rugby to some degree you have to earn the right to do it. And we played so much rugby in our half and we were unable to retain the ball.
“The over-riding disappointment is playing in the wrong areas; we weren’t actually able to get a foothold in the game because we couldn’t play any rugby in their half of the field and to compensate we tried to play rugby in our half of the field.
“Then after a couple of phases we invariably coughed the ball up and that’s when they were really clinical and punished us and well done to Sale for that, they fully deserved their win.
“But as I’ve said, the big positive for us is we now know where we are and what we we’ve got to do.”
Check out Harry Williams last minute try for the Titans HERE
Titans Squad:
15 Cameron McDonald, 14 Lewis Taylor, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Mat Clark, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Pocklington, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Colin Quigley, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 7 Lewis Allan, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
16 Alastair Donkor, 17 Harry Newborn, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Keifer Laxton, 20 Billy Addy, 21 Sam Boxhall, 22 Matty Drennan, 23 Jonny West. 24 Harry Dunne.
Pic courtesy of Gareth Siddons