Rotherham Titans returned to winning ways with an eye-catching 48-33 win over high-flyers Stourbridge on a windy afternoon at Stourton Park.
Rotherham outscored their opponents by 6 tries to 5, with Jamie Cooke, Zak Poole, Callum Bustin, Kieran Curran, Harry Newborn and Connor Field all crossing the whitewash, whilst Matt Minogue chipped in with a massive 18 points on a perfect day for him.
The win for Rotherham was an important one as it keeps them in touch with a host of clubs at the top of the table and they have taken points directly away from one of their main competitors.
The game itself saw Rotherham put in an excellent performance, but in particular they had a great opening 40 minutes where they scored three tries and restricted a dangerous Stourbridge side to very few opportunities.
Titans’ fly half Matt Minogue opened the scoring on 3 minutes with a well taken penalty before Jamie Cooke touched down for the first try of the game after receiving a huge miss-pass from Joe Carlisle.
Almost from the restart Roth had their second following more good work from Jamie Cooke which resulted in skipper Zak Poole charging in from 20 metres. Minogue impressed from out wide with his conversion to make it 17-0 after 20 minutes to stun the home side.
Stourbridge are not a top team without just cause and five minutes later they got themselves on the board when centre Seb Atkinson crossed the whitewash for captain and ex-Doncaster Knights scrum half, Michael Heaney, to convert.
Undeterred Rotherham continued to dominate in all aspects of the game and in particular at the set piece.
Ten minutes before the break Roth added to their try count when from a line out 15 metres from the line they ran a nice move through Matt Challinor who popped a pass back inside for Callum Bustin to charge through to score.
The second half opened up in the same manner when after 5 minutes Roth had the bonus point in the bag when Kieran Curran dotted down from a catch and drive close to the line.
The game was effectively sealed for the South Yorkshire side on 52 minutes when hooker Harry Newborn scored his side’s fifth try of the game from another line out close to the line, with Minogue adding the extras to make it 38-7.
With the game now gone Stourbridge threw caution to the wind and their backs were allowed to cut loose and this they did to great effect.
Just before the hour mark scores from fly half Afeafe Haisila and replacement centre Arthur Morgan gave the hosts slight hope of a miraculous comeback as they reduced the deficit to 38-19 with a quarter of the match to go.
However, five minutes later Titans Connor Field smashed that hope with an outstanding individual try. Collecting the ball from a goal line drop out around 30 metres out, the powerful winger charged through a host of defenders before showing neat footwork to round the full back to score Roth’s sixth try of the game.
In the final 10 minutes of this pulsating contest a Matt Minogue penalty was sandwiched with two more tries from Stourbridge; firstly with a penalty try and then at the death with winger Dan Rundle touching down.
Speaking on the pitch following this 81-point thriller Titans Adam Byron said:
“Obviously I am really pleased with the result and really proud of the boys; we wanted a reaction after last week and we certainly got that. We’ve come here and ticked a lot of boxes and got rid of a lot of question marks after the Fylde game.
“Playing into the wind in the first half we knew we were going to have to control the half in terms of territory and possession and the boys did that. They were clinical when they needed to be and that’s pleasing as we spoke about that coming into the game.
“We knew Stourbridge was a very good side and we saw that today, they were so dangerous from everywhere on the field and they have some real gas out wide.
“For me however the most important thing about today is that we have ticked boxes that we didn’t last week. We didn’t control the game like we should have done, we weren’t clinical in certain areas and our game management wasn’t as good as it should have been, in that we had all the territory and possession but didn’t come away with the win.
“So the difference from that and this week was huge and we really showed that we do understand how to control games and how to finish them off and that was the most pleasing aspect for me.”
Referee: Andy Wigley
Attendance: 450
Yellow Card: Smith (Titans)
Titans: Cooke (T), Poole (T), Bustin (T), Curran (T), Newborn (T), Field (T), Minogue (2P, 6C)
Stourbridge: Atkinson (T), Haisila (T), Morgan (T), Rundle (T), Penalty Try, Heaney (3C)
Titans: 15 Matt Minogue, 14 Connor Field, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 George Tucker, 10 Joe Carlisle (West 75), 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps (Donkor 29), 2 Harry Newborn (Bergmanas 57), 3 Rikki Stout, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith (Williams 75), 6 Zak Poole (Capt) (Curran 31), 7 Matti Williams (Wilson 57), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Lewis Wilson, 19 Kieran Curran, 20 Jonny West.
Stourbridge: 15 Tom Bacon, 14 Mark Harrison (Wilson 60), 13 Seb Atkinson, 12 Hal Riley (Morgan 41), 11 Dan Rundle, 10 Afeafe Haisila (Scott 57), 9 Michael Heaney (Capt.), 1 Mark George (Thorp 46), 2 Brad Clements, 3 Chad Thorne, 4 Matt Perks, 5 Ben O'Sullivan, 6 Jasper Smith (Jess Smith 50), 7 Michael Worthington, 8 Tatenda Mukarati.
Replacements: 16 Stefan Thorp, 17 Jess Smith, 18 Arthur Morgan, 19 Tobi Wilson, 20 Christopher Scott.
Photo Credit: Ceri Davies