Rotherham Titans crashed to a disappointing 41-16 defeat at home to table-toppers Fylde on a blustery afternoon at Clifton Lane.
The defeat brings to an end a run of 17 consecutive victories on home soil and Titans will now need to regroup before travelling to second placed Sedgley Park this Saturday.
Fylde showed why they are currently top of the pile with an impressive overall performance and they thoroughly deserved their first win at Clifton Lane.
Indeed after just 6 minutes the visitors crossed the whitewash to take a lead they would never relinquish, when winger Adam Lanigan raced in at the corner. Fly half Greg Smith nailed a superb conversion from out wide in gusty conditions.
Roth reduced the arrears when Corben Ollivent knocked over a 3-pointer, but it wasn’t long before Fylde had their second try when centre Connor Wilkinson picked up a nice grubber close to the line to dot down. Smith added the extras to make it 14-3.
Roth did have their moments in the first half, but too often were unable to make them count.
However, on 25 minutes they did score when from a Fylde scrum the home side pushed them off the ball and Rupert Kay broke clear, before offloading to Sam Boxhall who went in near the corner. Ollivent impressed with his conversion.
Ollivent then reduced his side’s arrears to 13-14 with a well taken penalty, but that would be as close as Roth would get to the lead.
Smith added a penalty of his own to send Fylde in at the break 17-13 ahead, but what followed in the second half was disappointing for the home side.
The North West outfit showed their class and ability as they won the second period 24-3, running in a further 3 tries to collect the bonus point.
Tries from hooker and Captain Ben Gregory, replacement back Sam Stott and full back Jordan Dorrington all ensured the table-toppers remain at the summit and with this performance a marker has been laid down of their plan to stay there.
Speaking after the game a disappointed Adam Byron said:
“We are frustrated; I don’t mind being beaten, but we were well beaten today. You can probably see from all our faces we are not the happiest right now, but we need to take it on the chin.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost at home and whilst winning runs will inevitably come to an end, to be beaten by a score like that is very disappointing.
“We spoke at half time about certain things that needed to improve, but not only did they not improve in the second half, they got worst.
“Our precision in certain areas of the pitch, our attack just wasn’t what it has been and defensively we weren’t getting the two-man hits and throwing the ball down as we normally like to. So that is very tough to take today, but we’ll own it and look to improve from here.
“Losing Lloyd Hayes on the morning of the game wasn’t ideal, he’s a key player in a key position and he’s a player who normally excels in the big games. His leadership on the pitch and his defensive qualities are outstanding and we obviously missed that. So whilst that was one element that went against us today, it wasn’t the reason we lost the game.”
Referee: Ben Rayner
Attendance: 250
Yellow Card: Dunne (Titans)
Titans: Boxhall (T), Ollivent (1C, 3P)
Fylde: Lanigan (T), Wilkinson (T), Gregory (T), Stott (T), Dorrington (T), Smith (5C, 2P)
Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Corben Ollivent, 9 Sam Boxhall (Ramrattan 54), 1 Charlie Capps (Donkor 31) (Rylance 52), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Inman 69), 3 Gareth Denman (Donkor 63), 4 Zak Poole (Capt.), 5 Matt Challinor, 6 Marcus Payne (Nwosu-Hope 49), 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Louis Inman, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 20 Kai Ramrattan.
Fylde: 15 Jordan Dorrington, 14 Adam Lanigan (Rawlings 74), 13 Connor Wilkinson, 12 Scott Rawlings (Stott 34), 11 Tom Grimes, 10 Greg Smith, 9 Matt Sturgess, 1 Corey Bowker (Lewis 57), 2 Ben Gregory (Capt.), 3 Peter Altham (Ashcroft 40), 4 Olli Parkinson, 5 Harlan Corrie (Garrod 40), 6 Toby Harrison (Fairbrother 40), 7 Henry Higginson, 8 Tristan Woodman.
Replacements: 24 Adam Lewis, 16 Matt Ashcroft, 23 David Fairbrother, 18 Matt Garrod, 20 Sam Stott.
Photo: Gareth Siddons