Rotherham Titans will be tested fully this weekend when they travel to Chester for a Nat 2 North game; kick-off at Hare Lane on Saturday is 3pm.
Following last week’s impressive win over Otley at Clifton Lane, Rotherham will look for only the second time this season to notch-up three consecutive wins.
However, that won’t be an easy assignment as one look at Chester’s home record shows what a good side they are at Hare Lane. They have won 8 of their 11 games on the 4G surface, with the 3 defeats being two 1-point losses against Sedgley Park and Huddersfield and a 2-point defeat to Otley. Very impressive indeed!
Chester also sits one place above Roth in the league as they occupy fifth position and when the Cheshire-based side visited Clifton Lane earlier in the season; they made the South Yorkshire outfit to work extremely hard for their 26-21 win.
As such Rotherham will go into this one giving the home side their full respect, knowing they’ll need to be at their best if they are to have a chance of getting a result.
Going into the match Roth have made just one change to the starting XV that beat Otley last time out, with Rupert Kay returning from injury and coming into the back row for Lewis Allan.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans head coach, Gary Pearce said:
“We were pleased to get the win against Otley, particularly with being at home and because they are a good side who’ve had a great season. Otley are above us in the league and gunning for third place and it was always going to be a challenge, but it was a challenge our lads responded to really well.
“The game was spoilt at times with the conditions as they were, but I thought we thoroughly deserved our win and I think we could have won by a bigger margin had we taken more of our chances in the first half.
“The lads played some good rugby and in general we are moving in the right direction. We are a big, strong side and at home we are a handful for anybody and this week we’ll have to put in another good performance when we travel to Chester.
“Traditionally Chester have always been a good side at home and this year they have shown they’re also a good side away from home and so we’ll need to be at our best. That’s quite often the case these days when you are away from home; if you’re not at the races you will nearly always come away with a defeat.
“Their record at home on the artificial surface is very good; they like to play good rugby which you can do on that surface and we have to give them credit for what they’ve achieved at home this year.
“So it will be important that we’re switched on and ready to go from the off. We’ll need to get excited and make sure that our effort and commitment is spot on. We are strong across the park; our forwards are dominant and very good on the front foot, our backs are powerful and carry well and we have to try and impose ourselves on them. If we can do that then we’ll give ourselves an opportunity to get a result.”
Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Kai Ramrattan, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Danny Rylance, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Marcus Payne, 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Aydan Godden, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Lewis Allan, 19 Callum Bustin, 20 Sam Veall.
