Rotherham Titans expect to be tested this week when they host Loughborough Students in round 26 of National 2 North; kick-off at Clifton Lane on Saturday is 2pm.
Following back-to-back wins on the road over Chester and Tynedale respectively, Rotherham this week make a welcome return to the home comforts at Clifton Lane, as they endeavour to stay in touch with Hull at the top of the table.
Whilst promotion maybe out of Rotherham’s hands, they will nevertheless try to keep their winning run going and be right there should Hull slip up on the run-in.
Loughborough however will not make things easy for the Titans as they come into the game on the back of a very impressive 55-0 win over Harrogate, where they ran in 9 tries!
Furthermore, as a reminder of how dangerous every side can be, the last time these two sides met at Clifton Lane it was Loughborough who ran out 29-23 winners back in January 2019; that was the season Students finished bottom of the division!
Titans starting XV going into the game sees two changes from last week, both of which come in the backline. Sam Veall comes in at full back and Tom Lewis comes in on the wing for Lloyd Hayes and Connor Field, both of whom are unavailable this week.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans Adam Byron said:
“We had a very positive performance at Tynedale last week and we came away with the 5 points which is want we wanted away from home. However, the rugby Gods are testing us at the moment in terms of injuries, and that meant we went with only 4 players on the bench and one of those we didn’t want to use because he’s not 100% fit.
“We started the game really well which was a positive as we’ve been focussing on the first 40, as we realise if you start well you can set yourself up into good positions for the rest of the game.
“Early in the second half we got the bonus point try and increased our lead to 31-5; but after that Tynedale threw caution to the wind and took some chances which paid off and all credit to them for that.
“We started to get tired in the latter stages and that’s when a lack of numbers through injuries really does start to hurt you because you can’t bring on fresh legs.
“But we are still in the hunt at the top and we will continue to give our best for the rest of the season, starting with Loughborough. It won’t be easy against them however, as they showed last week in their hammering of Harrogate 55-0.
“This time of the year really suits them, because as the sun starts to appear they start to throw the ball around and they enjoy playing some free-flowing rugby.
“So we’ll have to concentrate on our game management and understand where we want to play the game, understand that we want to control the tempo of the game and to make sure they are not able to play the rugby that they want to. We know what the challenges will be and we are very much looking forward to embracing them.”
Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Tom Lewis, 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 Marcus Payne, 7 Keifer Laxton, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Colin Quigley, 18 Matti Williams, 22 Olly Fisher, 20 Lewis Taylor.
