Rotherham Titans suffered a disappointing 24-10 defeat to Tynedale on a bitterly cold and blustery afternoon at Station Road.
The hosts played the conditions much the better and arguably won the game in the first half, when playing into a fierce wind they went in at half time trailing by just 3 points.
Titans only try of the game came from scrum half Sam Boxhall, with Lloyd Hayes adding 5 points from the tee.
The hosts took the lead on 14 minutes when a miss tackle in midfield resulted in Tynedale centre Will Miller dotting down under the sticks for fly half Jake Rodgers to convert.
Roth quickly put that disappointment behind them when two minutes later Lloyd Hayes broke through from 25 metres before popping a nice inside pass to Sam Boxhall to dive over close to the posts. Hayes converted to level matters.
With the conditions as they were and with a fierce wind at their backs, it was important Roth built a score to defend for the second half.
Unfortunately for them and despite making a number of breaks they were only able to add a solitary Lloyd Hayes penalty at the end of the half.
As expected, the second period saw the hosts make full use of the conditions as they pinned Roth back inside their own half for most of it and despite some resilient defending, the pressure inevitably told when lock forward Chris Wearmouth dove over from a pick-and-go for a converted try.
Ten minutes from time a Jake Rodgers penalty crucially gave Tynedale a 7 point lead which looked certain to at least guarantee them a draw.
To their credit Rotherham never stopped trying to save the game and they engineered multiple phases at the end as they tried to do so.
Unfortunately for them in the final play of the match a fumbled ball was hacked on from Jake Rodgers in his own half, before he won the foot race to score under the posts and then dust himself down to convert his try to give Tynedale a deserved win.
Speaking after the game Titans head coach, Gary Pearce, said:
“It was a game of two halves with the strong wind; we didn’t use it well and we probably tried to overplay in the first half. We didn’t capitalise on our breaks; we made 5 or 6 clean breaks but we didn’t end up with points from them.
“They played the conditions better than we did and they were a bit more patient than we were; but the lads played with bags of effort and commitment.
“Right up until the death it was a one score game before on the whistle they get the breakaway try under the posts and all credit to them for that.
“But we are only at the beginning of the journey and we have to be positive; we have to roll up our sleeves and work harder and to be a bit smarter and that’s hopefully what we’ll be.”
Referee: Michael Harris
Attendance: 325
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Boxhall (T), Hayes (C, P)
Tynedale: Miller (T), Wearmouth (T), Rodgers (T, 3C, P)
Titans: 15 Jack Taylor (Bustin 77), 14 Jack Hedley (Ollivent 40), 13 Sam Veall, 12 Lloyd Hayes, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Connor Dever, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps (Denman 59), 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Gareth Denman (Rylance 35) (Capps 71), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Lewis Allan (Payne 59), 6 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 7 Callum Bustin (Cambier 71), 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Cade Cambier, 19 Marcus Payne, 20 Corben Ollivent
Tynedale: 15 Rob Parker, 14 Seamus Hutton (Cooke 71), 13 Joe Lilley, 12 Will Miller, 11 Alex Dryden, 10 Jake Rodgers, 9 James Blackett, 1 Angus White (Batey 54) (White67), 2 Louis Frankland (Johnston 77), 3 Oscar Caudle, 4 Chris Wearmouth (Capt.), 5 Graeme Dunn (Nankivell 44), 6 Ben Bell, 7 Jonny Dodd, 8 Ben Blackburn (Cousin 40).
Replacements: 16 Ralph Johnston, 17 David Batey, 18 Jonny Cousin, 19 Ross Cooke, 20 Will Nankivell.
