Rotherham Titans are looking forward to playing some rugby following what will have been a four week game-break, when they travel to Blaydon on Saturday for round 14 of Nat 2 North; kick-off at Crow Trees is 3pm.
Due to the Christmas shut-down and the fixture against Hull Ionians falling foul of the weather, Titans have not played a game since the disappointing 21-16 loss to Preston Grasshoppers on December the 10th.
‘New Year – New Start’ will be the aim for the South Yorkshire side as they look to find their form going into 2023.
Going into the game Titans have made seven changes to the starting XV that took on Preston, four of which come in the backline.
Wingers Jack Hedley and Luckas Sableman-Blue return from injury and come into the side for Fraser Jones and Ollie Parker respectively. Lloyd Hayes too returns from injury and comes in for the injured Harry Dunne at inside centre; whilst the final change in the backs sees a short-term return to the club for Connor Dever and he comes in at fly half for Corben Ollivent.
In the pack Jack Bergmanas returns from injury and comes in for Harry Newborn, Lewis Allan is given the nod over Theo Nwosu-Hope in the second row and in the back row Rupert Kay also returns from injury and comes in for Callum Bustin.
Speaking ahead of the match Titans forwards coach, Matt Smith said:
“The boys will be excited coming off the Christmas beak to get the ball in hand and play a bit a bit of rugby; it’s been a while since we had a game.
“It’s a new year and we just want the boys to go out there and put in a performance they can be proud of and the supporters can be proud of.
“We know there are no easy games in this division and there are definitely no easy away games and we will give Blaydon our full respect. I don’t think we are in a position not to respect any opposition and not to take any side seriously.
“Blaydon are a side that can threaten you from all over the park; if they get into their stride and their confidence levels start to rise they are capable of scoring some very quick tries and putting you on the back foot.
“However we just want to focus on ourselves and I think we need to see more cohesion between the forwards and backs. If we are able to do that I think that will set up a platform from where we can go and do some really good things and the backs can show how dangerous they can be with ball in hand.
“We also need to make sure our penalty count is low, which in turn stops the opposition getting easy metres as we piggy-back them down the field. If we can do that we’ll give ourselves a good chance of getting a result.
“This week we have also brought Connor Dever back to the club for a short spell between his trips abroad. It’s great to have him back at the club and it’s great to bring in someone of his quality.
“We know what a good player he is having worked with him here when we were in National 1. We have brought him in to play at fly half and that’s an exciting opportunity for him, as it is for us too.
“We are hoping he can bring a little more creativity to the side and also his coming in means we can push Lloyd Hayes a bit further out where he is more comfortable and hopefully we can then get the best out of the both of them.”
Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Jack Taylor, 12 Lloyd Hayes, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Connor Dever, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Gareth Denman, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Lewis Allan, 6 Marcus Payne, 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Callum Bustin, 19 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 20 Corben Ollivent.
