Rotherham Titans were made to work hard for their narrow, but deserved 34-32 win over a resolute Otley side on a wet afternoon at Clifton Lane.
Titans outscored the West Yorkshire outfit by five tries to four, with scores coming from Luke Cole, Harry Dunne, Zak Poole and a brace from Jack Taylor, whilst Lloyd Hayes added nine points from the tee.
The victory was far from straightforward with Rotherham having to overcome a first half 25-14 deficit, before mounting a stirring second half effort to run out worthy winners.
Otley started the game brighter showing plenty of emotion and desire to get at Roth; that enthusiasm was converted into points on 5 minutes when full back Jacob Holmes broke through to open the scoring.
Titans bounced back shortly after when a powerful maul pushed the visitors backwards before hooker Luke Cole dotted down from the tail. Lloyd Hayes impressed with his conversion from out wide on his 100th appearance for the club.
Back came Otley almost immediately as winger Sam Taylor coasted through the Roth defence far too easily to score. Gavin Stead converted and then stretched his side’s advantage to 15-7 a few minutes later with a penalty.
Despite Rotherham enjoying lots of territory and possession and despite their pack completely dominating at the set piece they were unable to add to their tally at this phase of the game.
Eventually however the pressure told on Otley as Harry Dunne crashed over following a lot of hard work inside the 22. Hayes tagged on the extras.
Disappointingly again for Rotherham Otley hit back almost straight way!
This time it was scrum half Rory Gaffney who skipped his way through virtually unopposed from a scrum inside the Roth 22. Stead converted and followed this up with another penalty just before half time to send his side in for the oranges in high spirits.
Trailing 25-14 Rotherham needed to respond and find solutions to overcome a stubborn and determined Otley outfit.
Indeed, the second half saw a different Rotherham to the first as they stepped up their intensity, cut down on the penalties and became more clinical when opportunities arose. This resulted in them scoring three tries inside a 15-minute spell.
Firstly skipper Zak Poole crashed over from a maul, before winger Jack Taylor raced in for two sharp tries in the corner to give his side a 31-25 lead.
Inside the final ten minutes Lloyd Hayes added another penalty to stretch Roth’s lead to 34-25 and crucially to more than one score.
It appeared as if Otley would suffer being nilled in the second half, before two minutes from time centre Gavin Stead went over near the posts following a break in midfield from Louis Martin. Stead dusted himself down to knock over the extras and set up a nervy finish for the Titans.
From the restart however Otley couldn’t get out of their half and when Titans John Okafor induced a penalty with some fine work over the ball, referee Woods blew to end a pulsating encounter.
Once again Titans witnessed how opposing teams find performances against them that belie their league position; and so massive credit must go to the Roth players for matching their opponent’s spirit and determination and for coming out on top and maintaining their unbeaten status this term.
Speaking after the game Titans Rugby Consultant Harvey Biljon reflected:
“Otley were very good and fair play to them; they came here with a game plan and they stuck to it. On the flip side our players adapted very well, they took on the messages at half time and in those conditions they found a way to win.
“From a starting point coming in I think we’ve done well to win today, but there’s a lot of work still to put in.”
Following on from Biljon’s comments, Titans head coach, Gaz Lewis, added:
“Otley clearly tried to upset our rhythm and I think that will be a key theme throughout the season. We had to play territory, we had to control our scrum and our maul and the players listened and adapted and credit to them for finding a way to win.
“We’ve made a few changes in how we want to play, we spoke before the game about taking a breath and understanding there will be things that go wrong at times, but it’s about managing those moments.
The main thing is we found a way to win and we’ll now prepare well for Hull Ionians next week.”
Referee: Daniel Woods
Attendance: 250
Yellow Card: None
Titans: Taylor (2T), Cole (T), Dunne (T), Poole (T), Hayes (3C, 1P)
Otley: Holmes (T), Taylor (T), Gaffney (T), Stead (T, 3C, 2P)
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Dan Rundle, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Harry Dunne (Bustin 50), 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps (Kivalu 34) (Capps 73), 2 Luke Cole (Bergmanas 50), 3 Gareth Denman (Ward 34) (Denman 65), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Rupert Kay (Okafor 50), 7 Laurence Cowen-Leak, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 30 Reece Ward, 19 John Okafor, 18 Callum Bustin.
Otley: 15 Jacob Holmes, 14 Sam Taylor, 13 Gavin Stead, 12 Charlie Metcalf (Martin 55), 11 Clark Wells, 10 Eddie Crossland (Capt.), 9 Rory Gaffney (Eaton 65), 1 George Parker 9 (Bowen 34) (Fontaine 65) (Bowen 76), 2 Leon Mudd, 3 Jason Moss (Baxter 30) (Moss 72), 4 Alex Johnson, 5 Chris Jackson, 6 Nick Fontaine (Gibson 30), 7 Sam Hodge, 8 Ben Waddington.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Gibson, 17 Tom Baxter, 18 George Bowen, 19 Lewis Eaton, 20 Louis Martin.
