Rotherham Titans will look to recover from back-to-back defeats on Saturday when they host Chester in round 12 of Nat 2 North; kick-off at Clifton Lane is 2pm.
Following the disappointment of a home defeat to Sheffield Tigers and an away loss to Otley last time out, Roth will be busting a gut to try and get back to winning ways.
Their task however won’t be an easy one, as Chester will come into the game in fine form having won 7 of their last 9 outings and currently sit one place above Rotherham in fifth spot in the league.
Even in defeat Chester has impressed; their reversals to Fylde, Sedgley Park and Otley saw them pick up the losing bonus point and only Hull Ionians have managed to keep them pointless all season.
Going into the game Roth have made four changes to their starting XV, three of which come across the backline.
Ollie Parker makes his Titans debut on the wing for Luckas Sableman-Blue, on the other wing Fraser Jones comes in for Jack Hedley and at scrum half Kai Ramrattan is given the nod over Sam Boxhall.
The one change in the pack sees Danny Rylance come in at tighthead prop for Gareth Denman.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans forwards coach, Matt Smith said:
“We had a disappointing result against Otley, but I thought at times in the game we looked really good. To score 4 tries away from home is not an easy feat and to do that we were obviously doing lots of things right.
“However, we let ourselves down in giving away penalties, which gives them field position, which turns into pressure and then into points. Then our lack of discipline gave them a foothold and they took it because that what good teams do and that really was the story of the game.
“We will however continue to work hard as a group to improve and get better in all areas going forward and hopefully we will see some improvements against Chester this week.
“Chester are another very good side, but we shouldn’t be surprised by that, because I believe all teams in this league are good and each of them have quality players in a number of positions and Chester definitely have lots of quality in their squad.
“Chester will come here will lots of enthusiasm, energy and very much up for the battle and as any rugby player knows any team you take on with those characteristics are going to be very dangerous.
“One way you stop that enthusiasm is to be accurate – if you are accurate at the set piece, if you are accurate in your skills and in your defence, then you don’t give away those penalties and that slowly kills the oppositions enthusiasm.
“Chester like to move the ball around and that’s something that we’ve got to be ready to combat. Clifton Lane is different to the artificial pitch they have at home and it’s certainly not as wide and our set piece will be important, as that will enable us to set the pace and control the game, which hopefully will restrict them from moving the ball around as freely as they would like.
“So hopefully we can put in a performance that will lead to a positive result and give our supporters something to cheer.”
Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Fraser Jones, 13 Jack Taylor, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Ollie Parker, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Kai Ramrattan, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Danny Rylance, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Marcus Payne, 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Louis Inman, 17 Gareth Denman, 18 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 19 Corben Ollivent, 20 Sam Boxhall.
