Rotherham Titans expect another tough test when they host Wharfedale on Saturday in a rearranged game in Nat 2 North; kick-off at Clifton Lane is 2pm.
Following a spirited performance last time out which saw Rotherham narrowly beaten at league leaders Fylde, the South Yorkshire side will hope to get back to winning ways this weekend.
However, that won’t be easy as the North Yorkshire outfit will arrive with confidence, having lost by a single point at Tynedale last time out after beating Blaydon 22-3 before that.
When the sides met earlier in the season at The Avenue, Titans grabbed a dramatic victory in the final play of the game when Sam Veall broke through to score and another close game is anticipated this week.
Going into the match Roth have made five changes to their starting XV; four of which come in the pack.
In the front row Danny Rylance comes in at tighthead for Gareth Denman, Cade Cambier makes his first start in the second row for Lewis Allan, whilst in the back row Rupert Kay returns from injury and he replaces Zak Poole.
Aydan Godden has been brought in on a short-term loan from Sheffield Medicals and he comes into the back row for Theo Nwosu-Hope.
Along the backline George Tucker starts on the wing as Luckas Sableman-Blue moves to inside centre for Callum Bustin.
Speaking ahead of the match Titans head coach, Gary Pearce said:
“After a good performance from the boys last week, it will unfortunately be a different looking side this week with it being a rearranged game on a date where we have a few boys away.
So that’s creates an opportunity for some other lads to come in and show everyone what they can do and hopefully it is one they’ll grab.
“We are at home and we are hoping to build on what we had last week, which was a great team effort, great commitment and we all felt we should have come away with a bit more.
“So whilst we are missing quite a few key players, you’d like to think what happened last week might rub off on the lads and they know what they have to do and hopefully they can show us what they are about.
“We know Wharfedale are a good rugby club who like to play good rugby and they will be difficult to beat.
“They are well organised up front and they’ve got quite a bit of experience in Matt Beesley and Josh Burridge. They’ve also got a bit of pace behind the pack, but primarily they’ll play through the forwards and as always they’ll be very hard to beat.
“It will be interesting to see how we handle them after last week; our forwards were great against Fylde, but we’ll have to step-up because as we all know games are won up front.
“If we are going to get a result the forwards will have to play well and set-up a platform, we’ll need to be dominant. If it’s the other way around it could be a tough day at the office. They’ll have their moments, but hopefully we’ll have more than them.”
Titans: 15 Sam Veall, 14 Jack Taylor, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 11 George Tucker, 10 Connor Dever, 9 Sam Boxhall, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Danny Rylance, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Cade Cambier, 6 Marcus Payne, 7 Aydan Godden, 8 Rupert Kay.
Replacements: 16 Tom Richardson, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Ollie Parker, 19 Kai Ramrattan, 20 Fraser Jones.
