Rotherham Titans finished off their season with a worthy 36-17 bonus point win over local rivals Sheffield Tigers on a warm afternoon at Clifton Lane.
The win confirmed Rotherham’s third place finish in the league behind worthy champions Hull and second placed side Sedgley Park, who too enjoyed a successful season after scoring the most points in the division.
Titans will now look to regroup over the summer as they aim to go two steps further in 22/23.
The South Yorkshire side can be proud of their achievements this term following relegation from Nat 1, rebuilding a new squad and somehow managing to complete the campaign following their long list of horrendous long-term injuries.
Their final game against Tigers saw them only able to field 18 players; nevertheless, their overall performance on the day, after a sluggish start, was impressive and in these last few weeks the players coming in have done an amazing job which should bode well for the future at Clifton Lane.
Tigers started this match with plenty of enthusiasm and nosed ahead as early as the 4th minute when fly half Tom Parkin slotted over a penalty.
And to be fair to the Dore Moor side, they enjoyed the majority and territory and possession inside the opening quarter. Indeed, it took some hardy and resilient defending by Rotherham to keep them from extending their advantage.
Eventually however Titans worked themselves into the contest which saw them on the half hour mark open their account through centre Harry Dunne. Some sloppy work around the breakdown was exploited when Dunne seized the opportunity to steal and then gallop home from 25 metres.
Just before the break Roth doubled their tally when Dunne was on hand again. This time following a quick-tap from scrum half Sam Boxhall, Dunne charged through in support to collect and then barge his way over next to the posts.
Within 5 minutes of the restart Roth had their third try. This time from a scrum close to the line the ball was spread across the field before eventually arriving with winger George Tucker who had the formality of dotting down in the corner.
Titans’ bonus point try came shortly after when prop forward Tom Richardson started things off by stripping the ball on halfway, before he then found Zak Poole. He in turn made some good ground before finding Kieran Curran who slipped in Harry Dunne for his hat trick.
A now totally dominant Rotherham were rampaging all over the field and this inevitably resulted in their fifth try.
A loose ball on halfway was hacked on by Zak Poole up to the Tigers 22, before Connor Field helped it on its way with nudge that was collected nicely by George Tucker, who in turn slipped in Lewis Taylor to finish off. Lloyd Hayes’ conversion extended Roth’s lead to 33-3 which in effect ended the game as a contest.
Credit to Tigers must be given however as they never stopped battling and they were rewarded for their efforts when front rower Sim Meek and full back Harrison Astley ran in for two tries before the end.
Fittingly however, with the last kick of the match Roth’s tight head prop Colin Quigley, who was playing his final game before retirement, stepped up to convert a penalty to the enormous enjoyment of his team mates and the supporters at Clifton Lane.
Speaking on the pitch afterwards Titans head coach Adam Byron said:
“I arrived here in November, I think we had a tough task ahead of us and that was made a bit tougher with a few cancellations that we had and then when we came back after Christmas we knew we had 18 straight weeks without a break and it feels like a very big relief to get to the end of that.
“I think the story of that is a lot of injuries and that’s something that comes from having a hard slog, we had some very good performance and some really pleasing moments and at this time of the year it feels like a big relief and even more so in getting the win over Tigers and staying unbeaten at Clifton Lane all season.
“I want to give huge thanks to all our supporters; the support they have given us throughout the season has been outstanding, both at home and away and that makes a huge difference for the lads.
“With regards to today’s game we had a slow start, again we had to get over that cup final mentality, but I thought we rode the storm well and stayed very much in touch. It was nice to get the first try and once we got to 7-3 and then 14-3 at half time it felt reasonably comfortable.
“However, if we are honest we have to say our set piece didn’t functioning as well as we would have liked and when you work that hard to get field position and then your set piece lets you down that’s very disappointing and it puts you on the back foot. Thankfully it was the same for Tigers and so that evened itself out and then afterwards when we went 4 scores up it felt fairly comfortable after that.”
Referee: Matt Riley
Attendance: 541
Yellow Card: Holmes (Tigers)
Titans: Dunne (3T), Tucker (T), Taylor (T), Hayes (4C), Quigley (P)
Sheffield Tigers: Meek (T), Astley (T), Parkin (2C, P)
Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 Connor Field, 13 Lewis Taylor, 12 Harry Dunne, 21 George Tucker, 10 Sam Veall, 9 Sam Boxhall (Fisher 52), 18 Alastair Donkor (Richardson 33), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Donkor 76), 3 Colin Quigley (Stout 30) (Quigley 76), 4 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Kieran Curran, 7 Marcus Payne, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 19 Tom Richardson, 27 Rikki Stout, 22 Oli Fisher.
Sheffield Tigers: 15 Harrison Astley, 14 Sam Down (Keetley 78), 13 Jamie Broadley, 12 Sam Wager, 11 Otis Floyd, 10 Tom Parkin, 9 Ryan Holmes, 1 Will Bennett, 2 Louis Townsend (Meek 11), 3 Nick Bingham, 4 Joe Fitzsimons (McLaughlin 78), 5 Charlie Cone (Baldry 34) (Cone 52), 16 Connor Scott, 7 Angus Hughes (Clark 56), 8 Tom Calladine.
Replacements: 6 Jack Baldry, 17 Sim Meek, 18 Cam McLaughlin, 19 Freddie Clark, 20 Chris Keetley.
Photo Credit: Gareth Lyons