Rotherham Titans are looking forward to rounding off their campaign with a big South Yorkshire derby, when they travel to Sheffield Tigers on Saturday for their final Nat 2 North fixture of the season; kick-off at Dore Moor is 3pm.
Having secured fifth place in the league Rotherham will hope they can maintain their recent good form and finish the season off with a sixth consecutive win.
However, that won’t be an easy as Tigers have shown all year what good a side they are and that on their day they can upset any team in the division.
Indeed the Dore Moor outfit have already given Titans a bloody nose when they beat them in the reverse fixture earlier in the season at Clifton Lane.
Furthermore, Tigers recent form has seen them beat Otley at home, Wharfedale away and just miss out by 3 points on beating high-flyers Fylde; and therefore Rotherham won’t need any reminding of how good a side they’ll be taking on this weekend.
As such Titans will go into the game giving the home side full respect, knowing they’ll need to be at their very best if they are to give themselves any chance of getting a result.
Going into the match Rotherham have made three changes to the starting XV that beat Harrogate last time out.
Along the backline Lloyd Hayes returns following his efforts in last week’s London marathon and he comes in at fly half as Harry Dunne moves to outside centre and Tomasi Tanumi goes to full back in place of Jack Taylor.
Whilst in the pack Gareth Denman comes in at tighthead prop for Danny Rylance and Lewis Allan returns to the back row for Aydan Godden.
Speaking ahead of the match Titans head coach, Gary Pearce said:
“We’re going okay at the moment and we are pleased with that and we’re also pleased to be able to finish the season off with a local derby. There’s always plenty riding on these games because everybody wants to have the bragging rights.
“And fair play to Tigers, they beat Rotherham at home earlier in the season and they’ll fancy doing the same again at their place.
“For us we want to try and avenge that defeat and so there will be a lot of pride at stake for both teams.
“The lads are in good fettle and we are in a good place at the moment and everyone knows it’s a big derby game and that adds a little more spice to the occasion.
“We are more than aware that Tigers have some very good players, everyone knows that and everyone knows on their day Tigers are a match for anyone in the division, especially at home.
“They’re a tough side to beat on their patch, they play a good style of rugby and they have some danger men in their ranks.
“In Mark Ireland at fly half they have someone who gives them great direction; he kicks really well and is one of the leading point’s scorers in the league.
“They also have Jamie Broadley who has shown for many years what an effective and dangerous operator he is, especially when he’s running at you with ball in hand and no doubt he’ll be looking to hurt us again this week.
“Their pack is also a formidable unit and we know it’s not going to be easy going there, but it shouldn’t be easy, it’s a derby!
“So if we are going to give ourselves an opportunity we have to try and be dominant up front, we have to try and win the collisions and we have to try and get on the front foot. Then we’ll try and play in the right areas and attack when we have the opportunities to do so.”
Titans: 15 Tomasi Tanumi, 14 Jack Hedley, 13 Harry Dunne, 12 Callum Bustin, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Sam Veall, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Gareth Denman, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 6 Lewis Allan, 7 Marcus Payne, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Aydan Godden, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Danny Rylance, 19 Jack Taylor, 20 George Tucker.
