Rotherham Titans expect to be fully tested this weekend when they travel to Chester in round 25 of National 2 North; kick-off at Hare Lane on Saturday is 3pm.
Titans’ injuries woes since the beginning of February have been well documented and they became even worse this week as prop Alastair Donkor and back rower Matti Williams were added to the ever-growing list of unavailable players.
Nevertheless Titans will endeavour to keep themselves in touch at the sharp end of the table when they make their first ever competitive visit to Hare Lane.
Titans know their opposition well having just beaten the Cheshire-based outfit 33-28 at Clifton Lane 7 days ago, in a match that went down to the wire.
This game is a re-arranged one from earlier in the season when the original fixture was postponed due to Covid in the Titans camp.
The South Yorkshire side will not only have to overcome a terrible injury list, but they’ll need to react positively to the artificial surface at Chester; although to be fair, they have done pretty well on them so far this term.
There are two changes to the Roth side from last week, both of which come in the pack. Tom Richardson comes in at loosehead prop for Alastair Donkor and Harry Williams comes into the back row for namesake Matti.
There’s a bit of a reshuffle across the backline as Lloyd Hayes moves to full back, which pushes George Tucker onto the wing and Jamie Cooke to outside centre.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans Adam Byron said:
“We are on the road again and it will be a different environment with their synthetic pitch. However, we have trained really well this week in readiness and the boys know what they need to do.
“We have lots of injuries in our pack and that obviously makes things a little bit more difficult, but the boys who came in last week did a great job and I believe they will do so again this weekend.”
“We started last week’s game slowly and it will be vital that we start this week with a little bit more urgency about our work. We saw just how dangerous Chester are and we don’t want to give them a leg-up by starting slowly again.
“We know they’ll test us all over the park, but equally if we perform to the levels we can, the result we all want should be achievable and the boys will be giving it everything as always to make that happen.”
Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 Connor Field, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 21 George Tucker, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall, 19 Tom Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 27 Rikki Stout, 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Harry Williams, 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Colin Quigley, 18 Marcus Payne, 22 Olly Fisher, 20 Sam Veall.
