Rotherham Titans are fully prepared for the test they will face on Saturday when they welcome Huddersfield to Clifton Lane for round four of National 2 North; kick-off is at 2pm.
Roth continued their good start to the season last week with a 33-10 win over Lymm at Clifton Lane. They outscored the Cheshire based outfit by 5 tries to 1 and wrapped up the bonus point early in the second half; from thereon in they pretty much coasted home.
However, this week’s opponents from West Yorkshire will provide a much stiffer challenge as they will look to take on the Titans up front with their big, heavy pack of forwards.
Huddersfield have made a good start to their season having run Hull Ionians very close in round one, where they scored 5 tries and only lost the game by 7 points. They followed that up with a good away win at Lymm in a high-scoring match that saw them score 6 tries in a 48-41 win.
Last week however they came unstuck against a very good Hull team and were beaten handily at Lockwood Park.
Nevertheless, when the two sides last met in February, it was Huddersfield that ran out worthy 39-27 winners, sending the Titans home empty handed; and the sides have previously met on 5 league occasions, with Field holding a 3-2 advantage.
With all of that in mind Rotherham realise they’ll need to be on their game if they are to get any kind of result.
Going into Saturday Titans have made three changes to their starting XV, two of which come in the pack.
Charlie Capps comes into the side at loose head prop for Alex Pleasants, whilst Rupert Kay returns to the back row for the injured Laurence Cowan-Leak.
Across the backline Jack Taylor comes in on the wing, as Tomasi Tanumi moves across into the centres for the injured Lloyd Hayes.
Speaking ahead of the match Titans head coach, Gary Pearce said:
“When you look back at the game against Lymm, whilst as a coach you always want more, you have to give full credit to the lads. They worked hard, we scored 5 tries and we got the bonus point; so we’ve got to be really happy with that. Obviously we’ll strive to get better each week and I’m sure we will, but we also have to remember to enjoy it as well.
“We need to try and get a little bit more consistency; we are making a few unforced errors, but we are working hard to try and cut them out, especially for when we face sterner tests like the one we have on Saturday against Huddersfield.
“Huddersfield is traditionally a physical team that look to take you on up front; they have some real pace in the backs with the Stewart brothers and we are expecting this to be a grittier affair than the two games we’ve had at home so far, where Billingham and Lymm played a more touch-style of rugby; Huddersfield won’t be like that.
“They gave Hull Ionians a good run for their money, they won on the road against Lymm and they’ll bring a quite bit of intensity with them, but that’s what teams do when they come to Clifton Lane. We know they’ll be fired-up and we’ll have to match that intensity.
“They’re a big, heavy side and the set piece will be a bit of a battle, they have some good young lads, but they’ve also got some experienced players in there and they’ll give us a good game. Obviously we’ll give them the respect they deserve and I’m sure they’ll offer us the same in return.
“As always though we will focus on ourselves and on what we want to try and achieve. We play some good rugby at times and it would be nice to finish off some of the opportunities that we create and to be a bit more clinical.”
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Dan Rundle, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Will Milner, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Reece Ward, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Marcus Payne, 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Gareth Denman, 19 Lewis Allan, 20 Kareem Eissa.
