Rotherham Titans ran out narrow 17-10 winners over Stourbridge at a blustery, but bright Clifton Lane to maintain their promotion ambitions.
Both sides scored a try apiece, but ultimately it was the boot of Matt Minogue that sealed the win against a very good Stourbridge outfit.
Titans’ sole try of the game was scored by skipper Zak Poole 2 minutes from time and now the South Yorkshire side will focus on the important game against league leaders, Hull, in 7 days hence.
The game itself saw a much-improved Stourbridge team to the one Titans had played three weeks earlier at Stourton Park; a game the South Yorkshire side won with some ease to be fair.
However, in this one Stourbridge had loaded their backline with some big boys and the obvious message seemed to be run hard at Rotherham. This they did and for the first 20 minutes of the match Titans struggled to gain any control.
Indeed when hooker Jack Lea crashed over for the visitors and Michael Heaney converted on 21 minutes, the signs looked ominous for the home side.
Eventually Roth inched their way back into the contest with a couple of good penalties from Matt Minogue; this helped to calm the nerves somewhat as the game became a more even affair.
Heaney did slot over a penalty for the hosts before the break, but it was interesting Stourbridge decided to take the points on offer, as up to this juncture they had gone for the corner to set-up the drive. Titans’ resilience in defence had obviously had an impact on their change of strategy.
It was also noteworthy that this would be Stourbridge’s final score of the game as in the second half Rotherham managed to keep them pointless and indeed the West Midlanders rarely got anywhere near the Titans line; but that’s not to say it wasn’t a keenly-fought, close affair between two very good sides.
On the hour mark Rotherham took the lead for the first time when Minogue impressed again from the tee in difficult conditions from out wide.
Then two minutes from time Titans guaranteed the win when skipper, Zak Poole dotted down from a powerful driving maul close to the line.
Overall it was no more than Rotherham had deserved and equally the visitors more than earned their losing bonus point.
Speaking on the pitch immediately after the game, Titans’ Adam Byron said:
“I’ve just said to the boy’s teams that win championships sometimes have to win ugly and I would suggest that’s two weeks in a row that we have done that; but we’ve come out on the right side and we’ll take the win.
“Stourbridge probably had the better of the first half, but I thought we came back into the game well. We were very generous in the first half with the amount of opportunities we gave them, whether that be the penalties or mistakes in the wrong areas; but to come away only trailing by a point at half time is something I was very happy to take.
“We knew Stourbridge was a very good side and I think today’s score shows just how well we played when we went there 3 weeks ago, especially when we were 38-7 up at one stage.
“Today we saw Matt Minogue slot over some crucial kicks which helped to keep us in the game and I knew as long as we could stay in touch, I was confident we would go on to win the game in the second half.
Referee: Owen Taylor
Attendance: 394
Yellow Card: Ciaran Moore (Stourbridge)
Titans: Poole (T), Minogue (4P)
Stourbridge: Lea (T), Heaney (P, C)
Titans: 15 Matt Minogue, 14 Connor Field, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Colin Quigley (Richardson 28) (Donkor 46), 2 Harry Newborn, 27 Rikki Stout (Quigley 69), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Lewis Wilson, 6 Zak Poole (Capt.), 7 Matti Williams, 8 Kieran Curran.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 28 Keifer Laxton, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Tom Richardson, 20 George Tucker.
Stourbridge: 15 Matt Moseley, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 Rhys Pritchard (Ororo 73), 12 Ciaran Moore, 11 Dan Rundle, 25 Mike Penn, 24 Michael Heaney (Capt.) (Morgan 73), 1 Stefan Thorp (McLeod 28), 2 Jack Lea, 3 Chad Thorne (Smith 70), 17 Nick Murphy (O'Sullivan 61), 5 Matt Perks, 6 Mark George, 7 Jasper Smith, 8 Tatenda Mukarati.
Replacements: 20 Ben O'Sullivan, 21 Clarkson McLeod, 19 Jess Smith, 23 Dallas Ororo, 22 Freddie Morgan.
Photo Credit: Gareth Lyons