Rotherham Titans are prepared and ready for the challenge this weekend when they take on Chester in round 24 of National 2 North; kick-off at Clifton Lane on Saturday is 2pm.
Titans don’t expect it to be easy when the Cheshire based side rock up at the Lane, particularly having sustained a further three injuries on the back of last week’s bruising defeat to top-of-the-table Hull.
Added to the current injury list of Charlie Capps, Matt Smith and Callum Bustin are Matt Challinor, Lewis Wilson and Colin Quigley, whilst fly half/full back Matt Minogue has returned to his parent club in Scotland after his spell at the club came to an end.
Meanwhile, Chester will arrive at Clifton Lane for the first time for a competitive game and they will do so full of confidence, having won their last 3 outings against Loughborough Students, Huddersfield and Harrogate.
Chester are also not to be underestimated, and they won’t be, as they have shown they can cause an upset on the day, having already beaten Luctonians both home and away!
Rotherham as expected have been forced to reshuffle the starting XV which suffered late heartbreak at Hull, with five personnel changes and two positional ones.
The majority of changes come in the pack; in the front row Alastair Donkor will start at loosehead for the injured Colin Quigley and Jack Bergmanas comes in at hooker for Harry Newborn.
In the second row there’s a return for Theo Nwosu-Hope who comes in for Matt Challinor and skipper Zak Poole goes into the boiler-house from the back row as he comes in for the injured Lewis Wilson; Keifer Laxton comes into the back row for Poole.
Along the backline Connor Field returns to the side on the wing, as George Tucker moves to fullback for the departed Matt Minogue. The likeable Aussie (affectionately known to all as Kylie) will be hugely missed both on and off the pitch and all at the club wish him well.
Commenting ahead of the game Titans Adam Byron said:
“In terms of our game at Hull last week, I think it’s fair to say we didn’t get the bounce of the ball. However, I think we have to put our hands up and say we managed the game poorly in the first half.
“As a result we went in at half time trailing 12-0 and that left us with a mountain to climb and to be fair to the lads they climbed that mountain, before eventually at the end the bounce of the ball went against us.
“We still believe however it is possible to go on and win this league, there is still a lot of rugby to be played; we have nine games left and anything can happen, but all we can do is concentrate on ourselves and try to take the maximum points possible from each game.
“It will be the same again on Saturday; we have another tough challenge in Chester and we’ll need to make sure we are at our best if we are to get the result.
“We know Chester like to throw the ball around a bit; they play on a synthetic pitch at home and teams who play on those surfaces tend to enjoy moving the ball around at pace.
“However, this is nothing new to us this season and we will be very much prepared for whatever style they bring. We’ll just concentrate on ourselves and make sure we carry out our game plan to the best we can.”
Titans: 15 George Tucker, 14 Connor Field, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Alastair Donkor, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Rikki Stout, 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Zak Poole (Capt.), 6 Keifer Laxton, 7 Matti Williams, 8 Kieran Curran.
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Tom Richardson, 18 Lewis Allan, 19 Harry Williams, 20 Sam Veall.
