Rotherham Titans have trained hard this week in preparation for a tough encounter at the weekend, when they travel to the North East to take on Blaydon RFC in round 4 of Nat 2 North.
Despite Blaydon not yet having notched-up a victory, a closer look at the results show they have been very close to doing so in two of their games, having been denied victory by a solitary score twice and as such Rotherham will be fully focused on the job in hand.
Titans come into this one on the back of last week’s thriller at Clifton Lane, where they snatched victory with the last kick of the game to deny Bournville 48-46.
And whilst the Yorkshiremen will be delighted with their ability to score points, they will need to tighten things up in defence if they are to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign.
Coach Steve Salvin has made several changes this week as he looks to shake things up a little.
A reshuffle along the backline sees Lloyd Hayes move from outside centre to full back in place of Cameron McDonald, as Mat Clark comes back into the side in the 13 jersey. The other change in the backs will see George Tucker make his debut on the wing for Connor Field.
Up front Rikki Stout is given the nod over Colin Quigley at tighthead, Theo Nwosu-Hope moves into the second row for the injured Matt Smith (back), allowing Lewis Allan to come in to make his debut. Also in the back row Harry Williams will make his first start for the club as his namesake Matti recovers from a broken nose.
From the bench Callum Bustin is likely to make his debut at some point, having returned to the club from his league spell at Barrow.
Speaking ahead of the game, Titans’ Stave Salvin, revealed:
“Blaydon play on an artificial pitch so they’ll want to play a high-intensity game of rugby and to be fair we‘ve struggled a little bit against those types of sides from a defensive point of view. So we’ll need to make sure we work a lot harder on that aspect of our game than we did last week against Bournville.
“However, to be fair to the boys we’ve had a good training week and they’ve put in loads of graft. If we can replicate what we’re doing on the training field then we’ll give ourselves an opportunity on Saturday.”
Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 George Tucker, 13 Mat Clark, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Pocklington, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Rikki Stout, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Lewis Allan, 7 Harry Williams, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Francis Entressengle, 17 Alex Pleasants, 18 Colin Quigley, 19 Callum Bustin, 20 Jonny West.
