Rotherham Titans got their National 2 North campaign underway with a hard-fought, but well-deserved win over Wharfedale, as they ran out 35-5 winners at a busy Clifton Lane.
Titans outscored their Yorkshire rivals by 5 tries to 1 with Matt Challinor dotting down twice and Jamie Cooke, Zak Poole and Lloyd Hayes also touching down for five pointers. Two Jonny West penalties and a conversion and a Lloyd Hayes conversion completed the scoring for the home side.
In a much-anticipated game and 546 days since the last one at Clifton Lane, all at Titans were keen to get the new season underway with a win.
However, despite enjoying the lion’s share of territory and possession during the opening quarter, it was the visitors who scored first through lock forward Ben Leacock on 19 minutes, after livewire scrum half Sam Gaudie had jinked through to catch Roth flat-footed.
Nevertheless Titans hit back within 10 minutes after a Jonny West show-and-go enabled him to break the line allowing Matt Challinor to crash over following a couple of phases close to the line. West tagged on the extras to give Roth the lead.
Just 5 minutes later and the outstanding Jamie Cooke scored Titans second when he showed great strength to pick up from the base to bulldoze his way over in the corner.
West narrowly missed the extras but just before the break made amends as he slotted over a penalty to give his side a 15-5 lead at the interval.
It was important the home side came out strong for the second half and this they did as they crossed the whitewash twice more inside the opening 13 minutes.
Firstly Matt Challinor crashed over following a series of pick and goes and then captain Zak Poole dotted down after more powerful work from the pack.
To be fair to Wharfedale it would have been easy for them to roll-over at this stage, but full credit to them for continuing to put their bodies on the line as they chased and harassed Rotherham relentlessly and indeed kept them scoreless for the next 25 minutes.
However, late on centre Lloyd Hayes skipped through for Titans fifth try of the match after Sam Pocklington slipped him in from the base of a scrum.
With the last kick of the match Jonny West added a penalty to round off a perfect start to the campaign.
Speaking on the pitch straight after the match and not wanting to get too carried away after one game, Steve Salvin noted:
“We’ve had a steady start and that’s all it is, if you’d offered us this before the game we would have snatched your hand off because we knew the quality of the team we were up against and the quality of the coaching staff they have.
“On top of that we knew they wouldn’t just go away and the only way we’ve got 35 points on the board is we showed some unrelenting qualities and that for me is the biggest positive.
“But there are definitely elements of our game we know we have to make significant improvements on, so as I’ve said it’s a steady start.”
Referee: Carl Adams
Attendance: 531
Yellow Card: Gaudie, Bullough & Beesley (Wharfedale)
Titans: Challinor (2T), Cooke (T), Poole (T), Hayes (T, C), West (2P, C)
Wharfedale: Leacock (T)
Titans: 15 Cameron McDonald, 14 Connor Field, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Mat Clark, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Jonny West, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Colin Quigley, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 7 Marcus Payne, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Fran Entressengle, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Matti Williams, 20 Sam Pocklington.
Wharfedale: 15 Rian Hamilton, 14 Ralph Wellock, 13 Harry Bullough, 12 Thomas Davidson, 11 Oli Cicognini, 10 Jack Blakeney-Edwards, 9 Sam Gaudie, 1 Joe Altham, 2 Matt Speres, 3 Matt Beesley, 4 Ben Leacock, 5 Rhys Green, 6 Chris Jackson, 7 Jack Pinder, 8 George Hedgley.
Replacements: 16 George Altham, 17 Chris Steele, 18 Jack Thompson, 19 Ben Markey, 20 Luke Punton.
Photo courtesy of Steve Mettam