Rotherham Titans will aim to get back on the winning trail this weekend when they host Blaydon in round 18 of National 2 North; kick-off at Clifton Lane on Saturday is 2pm.
Following on from the disappointment of drawing at Bournville last week, Rotherham will aim to bounce back to winning ways with the homely comforts of being back at Clifton Lane.
However, they know, notwithstanding Blaydon’s league position, the North East outfit will undoubtedly present them with challenges and are more than capable of creating an upset.
Earlier in the season in the reverse fixture, Roth trailed 17-0 after 16 minutes and only sealed victory inside the final 10 minutes of the match.
Blaydon can also boast an away victory over Titans opponents last week, Bournville, and a recent win in the North East derby over Tynedale. So no one at Clifton Lane will be taking anything for granted this week.
Going into the game Roth have made 3 personnel changes and 3 positional changes to their starting XV.
Along the backline Connor Field returns to the side on the wing for George Tucker, whilst Matt Minogue and Joe Carlisle have swapped positions, with the latter moving from full back into fly half.
In the pack Colin Quigley comes in at tight head prop for Rikki Stout and Callum Bustin comes back into a reshuffled back row for Harry Williams, as Zak Poole moves from number 8 to blind side flanker.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans’ Adam Byron said:
“We were hugely disappointed with how things went last week at Bournville. We wanted to go there and stamp our authority on the game, so it was disappointing that didn’t happen and even more so with how the game went in terms of conceding early and then conceding very late.
“No one can question the boy’s effort and their work rate was unbelievable, but to a man, myself included, I think we can all put our hands up and say we could have done better on the day.
“That is something we all need to take into the Blaydon game, because as with a lot of teams we’ve found this year, this is probably going to be their cup final.
“There’s no doubt they’ll come out and have a go at us; they took an early lead against at their place and we’re aware they can play rugby and they’ll be very competitive in certain areas. We’ll need to manage the game a lot better, put the same amount of effort in as we did last week and be clinical when we create opportunities.
“Being at Clifton Lane will be a very different experience for them, it’s not as open and there isn’t as much space as there is at their place, but I still expect them to play in their normal way and for them to take some risks in their approach.
“They will try to throw the ball around and mix that up with some chips over the top, because every now and then they’ll get the bounce of the ball or a pass will stick; but we’ll just have to cope with what they bring, as we do every week.”
Titans: 15 Matt Minogue, 14 Connor Field, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Colin Quigley, 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Zak Poole (Capt), 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Matti Williams, 19 Lewis Taylor, 20 Jonny West.
