Rotherham Titans were beaten 39-26 by a good Otley side on a cool afternoon at Cross Green.
Titans picked up a losing bonus point for scoring 4 tries through Jack Taylor, Zak Poole, Gareth Denman and Matt Challinor, with Lloyd Hayes adding 6 points from the tee.
On paper this fixture looked like being a difficult one for Rotherham and in truth that’s how it turned out as the better side on the day got the result.
Roth started the game in good fashion and despite going behind on 5 minutes when former Titan Callum Irvine slotted a penalty, they soon nosed ahead when Jack Taylor dotted down in the corner following a nice off-load under pressure from Harry Dunne.
Otley however had plenty of energy about their work and soon retook the lead when Irvine knocked over another 3-pointer; it was a lead the home side would never relinquish.
Before the half hour mark the West Yorkshire outfit stretched their advantage with tries from winger Duncan Darling and another former Titan, hooker Luke Cole.
Although coming off second best during this phase of the game, Roth did give themselves hope before the break when skipper Zak Poole showed great power to crash over following good ball retention in the build-up. Hayes’ conversion reduced his side’s arrears to 20-12.
An Otley penalty from Gavin Stead on the stroke of half time meant the home side went in for the oranges with a healthy 23-12 lead.
Realistically Roth needed to score first in the second half to stay competitive in the match.
However, following the home side’s fourth penalty of the game, this time from Irvine, centre Clark Wells effectively sealed the contest with Otley’s third try to make it 31-12.
To be fair to Rotherham they never stopped working and they too picked up their third try on 66 minutes, when prop forward Gareth Denman picked up from the base of a ruck and ran in under the sticks. Hayes’ conversion made it 31-19.
But any hopes of a miracle comeback were soon dashed when Irvine bagged his fourth penalty and Darling ran in for his second try.
Roth did pick-up the bonus point for four tries when in the last play of the game second rower Matt Challinor barged over to score.
Speaking on the pitch after the game, Titans Director of Rugby, Martin Jenkinson said:
“This is a difficult place to come to, it might be the last time we come here with the situation with the ground and Otley are a difficult side to play against.
“It’s clear we are not in a good place at the moment, but we are sticking together, we are improving and we will get it together. We’ll get back on the training paddock next week and work at it until we start getting the results that we want.
“It was a definite improvement on our last performance against Sheffield Tigers; to get 4 tries and a bonus point away from home against a good side is to be commended.
“However, we are still not where we want to be and the boys are still not firing; sometimes it’s difficult to put your finger on why and we’ve got to make sure if there is such a thing as ‘the rub of the green’ that we get it, because at the moment we’re not.”
Referee: Michael Harris
Attendance: 200
Yellow Card: Capps (Titans)
Titans: Taylor (T), Poole (T), Denman (T), Challinor (T) Hayes (3C)
Otley: Darling (2T), Cole (T), Wells (T), Irvine (4P, 2C), Stead (1P)
Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Jack Taylor (Ramrattan 67), 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue (Rylance 62), 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Newborn 44) (Denman 77), 3 Gareth Denman (Sableman-Blue 71), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Marcus Payne (Nwosu-Hope 44), 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 19 Corben Ollivent, 20 Kai Ramrattan.
Otley: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Duncan Darling, 13 Clark Wells, 12 Gavin Stead (77), 11 Elliot Morgan, 10 Eddie Crossland, 9 Joe Rowntree (Charles Morgan 77), 1 Ethan Thiart (Moss 71), 2 Luke Cole (Gibson 71), 3 Jason Moss (Nicholls 62), 4 Adam Malthouse (Capt.), 5 Brett Mitchell, 6 Ben Waddington, 7 Sam Hodge (Carpenter 67), 8 Brandon Staples (Hodge 78).
Replacements: 16 Ryan Gibson, 17 Billy Nicholls, 18 Ben Carpenter, 19 Charles Morgan, 20 Blake Morgan.
