Rotherham Titans were denied victory with a 95 metre interception try by centre Reikiti Maasi with 4 minutes remaining, which ensured this pulsating Nat 2 North contest finished tied at 17-17.
Titans had plenty of opportunities to keep their winning run going, but unfortunately for them weren’t able to take them on the day.
However, the South Yorkshire side can take some solace in maintaining their unbeaten status and keeping themselves involved in a tightly fought contest for promotion.
The game itself saw Roth get off to the worst possible start as Bournville winger Tom Burrows dotted down for a converted try after just 26 seconds, following a miss tackle and then a chip over the top which caught the visitors cold.
Shell-shocked Titans took a little bit of time to grow into the game, but this they did as they started to go through the gears.
On 11 minutes the scores were level when Keifer Laxton scored from the tail of a maul following a line out close to the line and Matt Minogue impressed with the extras.
Roth continued to have the lion’s share of both possession and territory; however, a combination of handling errors from them and tenacious defending from the host ensured the scores remained level until first half injury time, when Minogue tagged over a 3-pointer to send his side in for the oranges 10-7 to the good.
Nine minutes into the second period Titans extended their advantage when Theo Nwosu-Hope barged his way over the line following a catch and drive from a line out. Crucially, Minogue nailed the conversion from out wide.
At this point most in the ground would have expected Rotherham to go on and secure a bonus point win and to be fair there were plenty of opportunities created by them for that to have happened. However, Bournville defended for their lives and somehow managed to keep their line intact.
Four minutes from time as Roth pressed looking for their third try, a pass close to the line was picked off by centre Reikiti Maasi who proceeded to gallop 95 metres downfield to score under the posts. Mitch McGahan had the formality of converting from in front to level the scores.
There was still time enough left for Roth to manoeuvre themselves downfield to find a winning score, but typical of what had gone before they were unable to find their touch on what turned out to be a disappointing day for them.
Speaking on the field just after the full time whistle, Adam Byron said:
“We are frustrated; it’s not a nice place to be when you can see the boys putting absolutely everything in and really putting their bodies on the line and then to not quite get over the line at the end.
“We just need to be a little bit more composed, a bit more clinical and just have the understanding that if we are a bit more patient when we have the ball teams won’t be able to cope with us; but as I’ve said the effort from the lads was outstanding.
“It never ideal going behind after 26 seconds as that put you on the back foot immediately, but once we got to 17-7 we really should have built on that.
“It wasn’t great that on one occasion when we kicked for the corner it was kept in with a player off the field and then we had couple of drives close to the line where we would normally score and we just didn’t quite convert that pressure today.
“Then by not building on our score we allowed them back into the game, firstly with a 3-pointer and then at the end when we were on their line and they get an interception and go the full length of the field.
“These things can happen, but we need to make sure we have the cushion so if that happens it doesn’t affect the final result.”
Referee: James O’Brien
Attendance: 350
Yellow Card: Capps (Titans)
Titans: Laxton (T), Nwosu-Hope (T), Minogue (2C, P)
Bournville: Burrows (T), Maasi (T), McGahan (2C, P)
Titans: 15 Joe Carlisle, 14 George Tucker, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Matt Minogue, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Harry Newborn (Bergmanas 75), 3 Rikki Stout (Quigley 70), 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Harry Williams (Matti Williams 45) (Donkor 67), 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Zak Poole (Capt).
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Colin Quigley, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Matti Williams, 20 Oliver Fisher.
Bournville: 15 Owen Williams, 14 Tom Burrows, 13 Reikiti Maasi, 12 Max Craven, 11 Ethan Walker (Ho 51), 10 Mitch McGahan, 9 Rhys Harrhy, 1 James Burgoyne (McArthur 36) (Burgoyne 70), 2 James Weaver (Rudge 67), 3 Ryan Smeilus, 4 Fynlay Brown, 5 Tom Holliday (Roach 40), 6 Ashley Scriven, 7 Sam Montieri, 8 Callum Thompson.
Replacements: 16 Scott Rudge, 17 Archie McArthur, 18 William Roach, 19 Mark Coulson, 20 Michael Ho.
Photo Credit: Andrew McCumiskey