Rotherham Titans maintained an interest at the sharp end of the table with a hard-fought 34-17 win over Chester on a bright and sunny afternoon at Hare Lane.
A keenly contested first half saw Chester race into a 12-0 lead after 26 minutes, before the South Yorkshire side bounced back to score 5 tries through a brace from Jamie Cooke and one each for Rikki Stout, Keifer Laxton and Connor Field.
The South Yorkshire side however did not have things all their own way and following a sluggish start found themselves behind after just 2 minutes when centre Ben Ivory dotted down for fly half Iwan Phillips to convert.
Matters got worse for Roth, who to be fair were struggling to put any significant work together at this stage, when prop forward Alex Reed barged over following more good work from the home side.
Titans eventually got themselves on the board after 30 minutes with a scintillating try from Jamie Cooke. The powerful centre collected on halfway following a line out and then proceeded to cut back inside before galloping down the right wing to score in the corner. Joe Carlisle impressed from out wide with the extras.
Confidence boosted, Rotherham grew into the contest and levelled matters before the break when tighthead prop Rikki Stout touched down following a powerful drive from a line out; Jack Bergmanas’ work in the drive was outstanding.
The second half saw Titans pretty much dominate throughout and in effect seal the game with a 3-try haul in the space of five minutes.
First up on 46 minutes and following a brilliant line break from Lloyd Hayes, play was taken inside the Chester 22. From there the ball was spread quickly along the line and collected by flanker Keifer Laxton who showed a good turn of foot to race in and score as he fended off two defenders.
From the restart the Titans defence showed good line speed which enabled winger Connor Field to pick-off a pass and gallop in from 55 metres for the bonus point try.
The fifth try quickly followed when Joe Carlisle threw a deft little pass to Jamie Cooke who raced in from 45 metres, before having to use great strength to shake-off two defenders to get over the line.
Six minutes from time Lloyd Hayes gave his pack a breather as he nail a penalty to extend his sides lead to 34-12.
However, in the final play of the match Chester scored their third try and it was no more than they deserved when a move which started in their own 22 was finished off by Ben Ivory.
Titans will now prepare for next week’s trip to Tynedale as they attempt to keep in touch with the leaders.
Speaking after the game Titans Adam Byron said:
“It’s always concerning when you go behind early, but what that does do is give you the opportunity to react within the game and that’s something we’ve been working on; that ability to change things within a 40-minute period and not just at half time.
“I was really pleased with how the boys reacted and to go in at half time at 12 apiece was a really big achievement and it set us up for a good second half.
“We had a chat at half time because we understood what did and didn’t work, we knew what we needed to change defensively and once we made the defensive changes Chester found it very difficult to break us down.
“We then played some very good rugby and opportunities came our way; the shape we played exposed them and that was really good to see.
“However, the most pleasing thing was how the boys reacted after the first 20 minutes, they did it all themselves, they made the right changes and really got us on to the front foot.
“Injury wise we’re up against it at the moment, but the boys are really pulling together and it’s great to see everyone contributing to what we are trying to achieve.”
Referee: Ben Davis
Attendance: 377
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Cooke (2T), Stout, (T), Laxton (T), Field (T), Hayes (2C, 1P), Carlisle (1C)
Chester: Ivory (2T), Reed (T), Phillips (1C)
Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 Connor Field (Veall 73), 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 21 George Tucker, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Sam Boxhall (Fisher 75), 19 Tom Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 27 Rikki Stout, 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Harry Williams (Payne 60), 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Colin Quigley, 18 Marcus Payne, 22 Olly Fisher, 20 Sam Veall.
Chester: 15 Gethin Long, 14 Jonny Roberts, 13 Ben Ivory, 12 Tom Scott, 11 Kier Gordon, 10 Iwan Phillips, 9 Tom Holloway (Craven 53), 1 Tom Furnival (Woods 45), 2 Scott Robson (Williams 75), 3 Alex Reed (Williams 28) (Reed 58) (Guest 70), 4 George Spalding, 5 James Lloyd (Brearey 56), 6 Harry Wilkinson (Capt.), 7 Sam Brearey (Farrar 45), 8 David Ford (Lloyd 70).
Replacements: 18 Wade Williams, 20 Joshua Woods, 17 Tom Guest, 19 Sam Farrar, 21 John Craven.
