Rotherham Titans expect to be tested this week when they travel to in-form Tynedale in round 26 of National 2 North; kick-off at Station Road on Saturday is 2pm.
Titans will aim to keep their title ambitions on track when they travel to the North East, however, with Tynedale coming into the game on the back of 6 straight wins, the South Yorkshire side will have their work cut-out.
Tynedale have enjoyed a good season to date which sees them currently sitting nicely in 7th position. That’s an improvement on their finishing position from the previous Covid foreshortened season, where they finished 11th that year.
Last time out North East outfit impressed with a 24-22 away win at Sheffield Tigers and no doubt they’ll be looking to take another South Yorkshire scalp this week.
Rotherham in turn will go into the game in decent form themselves having won 6 of their last 7 outings. Their only defeat came in the final throes of the game away to league leaders Hull at the beginning of March.
Not helping matters for Rotherham in their ambitions is the current list of injured players, particularly in the pack.
The following 8 forwards are all unavailable for Saturday’s game, as they were for last week’s trip to Chester: In the front row Charlie Capps & Alastair Donkor, in the second row Matt Challinor & Matt Smith and in the back row Matti Williams, Lewis Wilson, Callum Bustin & Kieran Curran.
Nevertheless Titans will once again aim to be competitive as the same starting XV take to the field. Indeed the only change to the match day 20 is Tom Lewis who comes on to the bench for the unavailable Sam Veall.
Speaking ahead of the match Titans Adam Byron said:
“We are on the road again and Tynedale will for sure present us with challenges all over the park. They are a very physical side and have a big set of forwards, but they also like to play rugby and throw it wide whenever the opportunity arises.
“We also know they’re in good form having won their last 6 games and their confidence is sure to be high and as such they’ll be a difficult side to beat.
“However, we are in decent form and despite our injuries the squad is performing incredibly well. We have confidence in all the boys to perform at a certain level and to a man they are all hitting our expectations.
“If we can keep up our performance levels like we did last week against Chester, we will undoubtedly give ourselves an opportunity to come away with the right result.”
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 Tom Lewis.
