Rotherham Titans overcame a sluggish start to the game as they stormed back to beat an enthusiastic Blaydon side by 7 tries to 2 to notch-up a worthy 49-17 victory, on a warm afternoon at Crow Trees
The victory sees Rotherham maintain their unbeaten start to the season after 4 games and lifts them into third place in the table, just 2 points behind league Leaders and Titans next opposition in 7 days’ time, Fylde.
Once again however, the South Yorkshire side found themselves behind at the end of the first quarter, as the home side raced out of the blocks to score two tries through loosehead prop Drew Thompson and fly half Jonny Ashman, both of which were converted by Ewan Greenlaw, who also added a penalty on 17 minutes to give his side a perfect start.
At this stage Blaydon were rampant and the momentum was undoubtedly with them and with a 17-0 lead, had they managed to make full use of their dominance at this juncture, the final outcome could have looked very different.
Rotherham however managed to keep their composure as they slowly began to exert some control in the game.
On 23 minutes Titans pack-power yielded its first points of the game when openside flanker Harry Williams dotted down from an authoritative driving maul, following a line out close to the line.
Buoyed with this success Rotherham now looked a better side as their confidence grew and they began moved the ball around and construct good phase work as they retained the ball convincingly.
Just after the half hour mark Roth reduced their arrears further when Mat Clark picked up from the base of a ruck and sniped through to take the ball up to the line before being brought down. Sam Pocklington was on hand however to flick a pass out to blindside flanker Lewis Allan in support, who in turn showed good footwork to step back inside to score.
Joe Carlisle nailed the extras to send Roth in at the break trailing by 17-12.
Rotherham continued to impress in the second period and within 10 minutes they poked their noses in front for the first time, when 22 seconds after coming on as a replacement, Callum Bustin dotted down having broken-off the maul close to the line to score. Jonny West tagged over the extras to give Roth a slender 19-17 lead.
To be fair to Blaydon they still looked threatening, especially in broken play and when there were gaps to be exploited Roth needed to be on their toes to keep them out, but this they did when it mattered.
Just after the hour mark Titans added to their advantage following a nice break down the right wing from debutant George Tucker. As he was grounded deep inside the 22 the ball was picked up by Sam Pocklington and fed back inside to the onrushing Harry Dunne who jinked through to score a nice try.
The next 10 minutes saw two penalties follow and up stepped Jonny West to convert as Roth increased the lead to 30-17.
Two minutes from time any lingering hopes the home side had of a late comeback were quashed when Theo Nwosu-Hope charged the ball down around half way and then Mat Clark hacked on for Jamie Cooke to collect and score under the sticks. West’s conversion made the score 37-17.
From the restart Roth almost switched into party mode as victory had been secured.
A clearance kick from inside his own 22 from Jonny West was brilliantly gathered by Harry Williams who then galloped off before sending the ball out wide to Jamie Cooke, who in turn took play inside the Blaydon 22. A couple of phases later and loosehead prop Alex Pleasants got in on the act when he collected from 15 metres out to charge through to score. West added the extras.
And then in the final play of the game some great handling and offloading resulted in a brilliant team try for the Titans. The cross field move included Mat Clark, Sam Pocklington, Jonny West, Alex Pleasants, Callum Bustin, Zak Poole and Theo Nwosu-Hope who stepped inside before finding Francis Entressengle who raced in to finish off a superb try and seal a marvellous victory.
Speaking on the pitch after the game Titans’ Steve Salvin said:
“Being 17-0 down after 17 minutes wasn’t the start we had planned, but to be honest I still thought we would win the game because we just hadn’t started.
“We reviewed Blaydon in the week and they did almost a picture-perfect execution of a game plan we knew was coming our way. We talked about it, we prepared for it and we trained for it, but for whatever reason in that opening period we just let them do what they wanted and on this pitch with the cohesion they have, they fully deserved their 17-point lead.
“However, I never thought we were out of it and I knew if we got a foothold and some control of the game we would come through. Also, to get back to 17-12 before half time was a massive bonus.
“I think the boys deserve a lot of credit in that they always find a way to get back into games; they were 17-3 down against Sedgley and got themselves into a winning position and today again they came back from being 17 points down and that shows how resilient they are as a group.
“We are still fallible though and if we are going to kick-on and be successful, because we’re not where we need to be yet, we’ll have to keep working until we get there.”
Referee: Michael Harris
Attendance: 348
Yellow Card: None
Titans: H. Williams (T), Allan (T), Bustin (T), Dunne (T), Cooke (T), Pleasants (T), Entressengle (T), Carlisle (1C), West (3C, 2P)
Blaydon: Thompson (T), Ashman (T), Greenlaw (2C, P)
Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 George Tucker, 13 Mat Clark, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle (West 35), 9 Sam Pocklington, 1 Charlie Capps (Pleasants 57), 2 Harry Newborn (Entressengle 60), 3 Rikki Stout (Quigley 57), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Lewis Allan (Bustin 46), 7 Harry Williams, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Callum Bustin, 17 Colin Quigley, 18, Alex Pleasants, 19 Francis Entressengle, 20 Jonny West.
Blaydon: 15 Nathan Bailey, 14 James Cooney, 13 Ewan Greenlaw, 12 Alex Clark (Capt.) (Mongan 68), 11 Jack Appleton, 10 Jonny Ashman (Clark 76), 9 John Clarkson, 1 Drew Thompson (Beattie 71), 2 Mike Newstead, 3 Elliott Beattie (Dodds 40), 4 Liam Wright, 5 Keith Laughlin (Kirkbride 20), 6 Alex Charlton, 7 Anthony Harrison (Cooper 16), 8 Ethan Clarke (Gray 59).
Replacements: 16 Danny Gray, 17 Alex Dodds, 18 Ryan Kirkbride, 19 Paddy Cooper, 20 Hugh Mongan.
