Rotherham Titans are prepared to be tested this weekend when they travel to Preston Grasshoppers in round 13 of National 2 North; kick-off on Saturday at Lightfoot Green Lane is 2:30pm.
Following an unplanned break due to a frozen pitch at Clifton Lane last weekend, Titans are raring to go in their penultimate game before Christmas.
With the Sheffield Tigers game falling foul of the weather, some bruised bodies from the Leeds Tykes defeat were given some unexpected time to recover.
Nevertheless, Rotherham won’t underestimate their task in the North West as in the corresponding fixture last season they suffered a disappointing defeat.
Hoppers sit ninth in the league having won four games against Huddersfield, Billingham and notably away successes at Tynedale and Hull Ionians, with a draw against Hull.
Overall the teams have previously met in the league on 4 occasions, with the score standing at 2 wins each and with the home side prevailing in all matches.
Going into the game Titans have made three changes to their starting XV, two of which come in the forwards.
Luke Cole comes into the side at hooker for Jack Bergmanas, whilst Callum Bustin comes into a reshuffled back row for Laurence Cowen-Leak.
The one change in the backs sees Jack Taylor come in on the wing, as Harry Dunne moves to inside centre for Tomasi Tanumi.
Speaking ahead of the match Titans Harvey Biljon said:
“I think we had a missed opportunity not playing last week; the boys were ready to go and perform again and at this stage of the season they are still enthused about training and they are getting fitter and fitter. The boys were very eager to play and I think they are even more energised going into the game this week.
“There are different ways to look at it; we sometimes want to rotate and look after certain players, but at the same time we also want to remain battle hardened and build on momentum.
“Momentum doesn’t mean having to go and win a game, it means learning what this team is all about and to keep on improving and we’ve seen significant improvement in key areas over the last few weeks.
“We came out of the loss at Leeds with real positivity, we saw certain areas where we had made improvements and there was a real enthusiasm to learn and get better in other areas. The aim is to continue to improve against Preston Grasshoppers.
“The artificial surface at Preston shouldn’t have any impact on what we want to achieve; we will continue to be true to how we want to try and play the game. It may bring a couple of other challenges, but it means the game is definitely going ahead and that’s important.
“I can’t comment on what’s happened in the past, but what I can say is that I’m enjoying going to rugby clubs I’ve never been to. Everyone I’ve met so far has been very welcoming, but the one thing that has been very apparent is the extra level of emotion teams have when they play against Rotherham.
“So don’t be fooled by the league table because rugby - as much as it is technical and tactical – does require a certain amount of emotion and teams are bringing that emotion and I suspect this weekend against Preston will be no different.
“We will need to be ready and feel confident that we can rely on the way we have been training and to make sure that carries us into a performance on Saturday.”
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Dan Rundle, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Will Milner, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Gareth Denman, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 19 John Okafor, 7 Zak Poole (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Laurence Cowen-Leak, 6 Rupert Kay, 20 Will Metcalfe.
