Rotherham Titans face a tricky test this weekend when they host Yorkshire rivals Otley in round 8 of National 2 North; kick-off on Saturday at Clifton Lane is 2pm.
Rotherham maintained their unbeaten start to the season last time out with a hard-fought, but well-deserved 37-17 win over Sheffield at Abbeydale Park.
The victory made it a straight seven wins on the spin this term and the hope will be to keep that run going against their West Yorkshire opponents.
However, despite Otley’s current position in the league, a recent upturn in form has seen them win two of their last four games and they’ll be aiming to keep that momentum going this week.
Since Titans last outing a new coaching team of Harvey Biljon and Gareth Lewis have taken over at Clifton Lane and the pair will be eager to continue the good work that has gone in so far this term.
Overall the teams have met on 16 previous league occasions, with Roth holding a healthy 12-4 advantage and whilst Titans did lose at Cross Green last season, the corresponding fixture at Clifton Lane saw Roth run out 28-21 winners.
Going into Saturday’s match Roth have made four changes to their starting XV, three of which come in the backline.
In the centres Harry Dunne and Tomasi Tanumi pair up as Callum Bustin drops to the bench and Lloyd Hayes – making his 100th appearance for the club - goes in at fly half in place of Will Milner.
On the wing Jack Taylor comes in for Lewis Winterbottom, whilst at scrum half JB Bruzulier is given the nod over Kareem Eissa.
The only change in the pack sees Rupert Kay come into the back row for John Okafor who drops to the bench.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans new head coach, Gaz Lewis said:
“It feels fantastic to have joined Rotherham; it’s been a bit of a whirlwind couple of weeks, but I’ve always been ambitious to coach as high as I possibly can and when this opportunity came around I grabbed it with both hands.
“It’s a great honour to coach a club with such great history; I think Rotherham has traditionally always been one of the stronger teams in Northern Rugby. It’s got a great reputation with a superb fan base which I’ve seen personally both at Clifton Lane and on the road with the #ShedOnTour.
“The current squad is an extremely talented group with great experience and the prospect of working with such quality players is very exciting.
“Harvey Biljon has also come in at the same time and although we didn’t know each other before, we have played against each other many years ago in National 1 when he was on loan at Blackheath and I was playing for Halifax.
“We have spoken a lot in the last couple of weeks and we’ve worked closely in our planning on how best we can bring the club success.
“To have the chance to work with someone who’s had amazing success at Jersey in the Championship and who’s experienced in working in a full time professional environment, it’s a great opportunity for me to learn.
“I’ve always been a student of the game and I’ve always tried to tap into different environments; and whilst I’ll bring my own coaching ability and my own style, I can certainly learn from Harvey which is great for me.
“We have an exciting month ahead where we’ll face some of the stronger sides in the competition; however, we’ll go into them with all guns blazing and hopefully we can come out of November with some good results.
“That tough month starts against Otley; they are another club with a rich history and I know from my own experience, every opposition that plays Rotherham Titans aims to raise their game and the opportunity of causing an upset is a strong motivating factor.
“Otley will be tough because they have some very good players; traditionally they have a strong pack of forwards and in their captain, Adam Malthouse, they have a great leader, a strong ball carrier and a lot of their game plan will revolve around him. Ben Waddington in the back row is also an influential player, he’s very athletic, he likes to play in the wide channels and he’s definitely a threat.
“So, the message for our boys is we’ve got to be on it, not just for Otley, but week-to-week and make sure that we play to our potential and we put in a performance we know we’re capable of.”
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Dan Rundle, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Gareth Denman, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Rupert Kay, 7 Laurence Cowen-Leak, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 30 Reece Ward, 19 John Okafor, 27 Callum Bustin.
