Rotherham Titans put in a brilliant performance to overrun third-placed side Hull Ionians 52-25 on a bright afternoon at Clifton Lane.
Roth showed that on their day they can be a handful for any side in the division as they outscored their opponents by 8 tries to 3.
Rotherham’s tries came way of a brace on debut for Tomasi Tanumi, with one each for Callum Bustin, Gareth Denman, Matt Challinor, Danny Rylance, Lloyd Hayes, who also added 12 points from the tee and fittingly on his 100th appearance for the club, Zak Poole.
Titans raced out of the blocks and showed their intent from the start and their appetite for the contest was clear to see.
That intent was duly rewarded inside 16 minutes as Titans scored twice through driving mauls close to the line in “Plant’s Corner”. Callum Bustin and Gareth Denman were each on hand to dot down.
Hull Ionians are not third in the table for no reason and before the half hour mark they struck back through Lewis Minikin who knocked over a penalty, scored a try and then converted it to reduce his side’s arrears to 14-10.
However, undeterred Rotherham continued to show great energy and desire. This in turn led to a third try before the break when the ball was shipped on to Matt Challinor for him to clatter his way over. Hayes’ conversion ended the half with Roth 21-10 t the good.
An early Lewis Minikin penalty was soon surpassed as Titans secured one point with their fourth try. This came after I’s bundled a line out inside their 22, allowing Roth to poach and spread the ball quickly through the backs for Tomasi Tanumi to step back inside to score a fine try on debut.
Titans were now buoyant and look threatening every time they had possession and they didn’t have to wait too long before their next score.
On 53 minutes a quick-tap penalty from Connor Dever found prop forward Danny Rylance and he showed great determination to power over close to the sticks.
Ionians did register a second try on the hour mark through replacement forward Tyler Heelas, but within a minute Titans knocked any hopes of a late comeback on the head when Tomasi Tanumi scored his second in the corner following great work in the build-up from Lloyd Hayes.
Inside the final 10 minutes Rotherham added two further tries through Lloyd Hayes and fittingly Zak Poole on his 100th appearance for the club, before with the last play of the game Ionians got a consolation try through the talented Jack Townend.
All in all not too many from outside the Titans camp would have seen this result as possible, but inside the dressing room it was thought a corner had been turned and a win was definitely attainable against what is a very good Ionians side.
Titans will now get back to the training field and aim to improve further for when they take on top-of-the-league Sedgley Park on Saturday at Clifton Lane.
Speaking after the game Titans head coach, Gary Pearce, said:
“We’re obviously delighted with the result; when we played Fylde the other week we were really good and we were very unlucky not to beat them that day. And we know our lads have plenty of heart and spirit and that we have some good players here.
“We scored 8 tries and were pretty dominant; we bashed them and across the park we were really good. We brought Tomasi Tanumi in this week and I thought he made a nice impact. He communicates well and that helps a lot with some of the younger lads.
“Our forwards were very dominant; they caused so much carnage out there which was great to watch; but we should be doing that because they are good players.
“We are at home and the expectation is that we win games and we should be winning games; so hopefully from here with a little bit of a fire inside them we can hopefully carry that on into the rest of the season.
“This is all down to the players, they are the ones that have to come out and do the business and that’s what they have done and full credit to them.”
Referee: Nathan Howarth
Attendance: 250
Yellow Card: Payne (Titans), Pocklington (Ionians)
Titans: Tanumi (2T), Bustin (T), Denman (T), Challinor (T), Rylance (T), Poole (T), Hayes (T, 6C)
Hull Ionians: Heelas (T), Townend (T), Minikin (T, 2P, 2C)
Titans: 15 Sam Veall (Tucker 71), 14 Jack Taylor, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Callum Bustin, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Lloyd Hayes (Dever 77), 9 Connor Dever (Boxhall 66), 1 Charlie Capps (Denman 48), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Richardson 75), 3 Gareth Denman (Rylance 30), 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Marcus Payne (Allan 75), 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Tom Richardson, 17 Danny Rylance, 18 Lewis Allan, 19 George Tucker, 20 Sam Boxhall.
Hull Ionians: 15 Lewis Minikin, 14 Sam Wilson, 13 Cameron Burnhill, 12 Jack Townend, 11 Josh Britton (Celella 67), 10 Ben Smith, 9 Sam Pocklington, 1 Chris Morton, 2 Allan Hudson, 3 David Laverick (Westwood 33), 4 Joe Makin, 5 Alex Campbell (Heelas 51), 6 Callam Sanderson, 7 James Sanderson (Capt.) (Powell 67), 8 Declan Thompson.
Replacements: 16 Scott Westwood, 17 Lucas Powell, 18 Tyler Heelas, 19 Tom Bullough, 20 Alfredo Celella.
