Rotherham Titans anticipate a tough test this weekend, when they travel to the North East to take on Tynedale in round five of National 2 North; kick-off at Station Road on Saturday is 3pm.
Titans maintained their unbeaten start to the season last time out with a hard-fought, but impressive bonus-point win over a rugged Huddersfield outfit.
And whilst confidence in camp will have been boosted, no one at Clifton Lane is underestimating how tough a challenge it will be this week; especially as it’s still fresh in the minds of how Tynedale beat Roth in the corresponding fixture last year.
A quick look at the league table may suggest that Tynedale aren’t as strong as last season, however a closer inspection reveals all their defeats have been by 7 points or less. Indeed they have scored an impressive 16 tries in 4 games and collected 6 bonus points - the most in the division.
Historically, the teams have met in the leagues on 6 previous occasions dating back to the 1989/90 season, with Roth holding a healthy 5-1 advantage.
Going into Saturday Titans have made four changes to their starting XV, three of which come in the pack.
In the front row Jack Bergmanas comes into the side at hooker for Luke Cole and Gareth Denman comes in at tight head prop for Reece Ward, whilst Laurence Cowan-Leak returns to the back row for Marcus Payne.
Across the backline Lloyd Hayes comes in at full back for Jack Townend.
Speaking ahead of the game Titans head coach, Gary Pearce said:
“I was delighted with the boy’s last time out against Huddersfield; I thought we showed a bit more and we played some of our best rugby so far this season.
“We scored some really nice tries and showed some good shape and I think we are heading in the right direction performance wise. We’re always looking to improve as you should do, but all credit to the lads for our unbeaten start.
“Our confidence is good, as it always is when you’re winning, but it’s important we keep our eye on the ball because we’ve got Tynedale this week.
“They are a different side on their own patch and they’re a side that have scored a lot of tries already this season.
“Unfortunately for them they’ve been beaten by a couple of points here and there, but they’ve been in the mix in every game they’ve played.
“We know the task in hand, we know it’s a difficult place to go, it’s like going to Wharfedale and when you go to places like that if you can come away with the win you’re very glad to have done so.
“So we’ll go there with the ambition of putting in a performance and if we can do that we’ll give ourselves a chance of getting a result.”
Titans: 15 Lloyd Hayes, 14 Dan Rundle, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Townend, 10 Will Milner, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Gareth Denman, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 John Okafor, 7 Rupert Kay, 8 Zak Poole (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Reece Ward, 19 Laurence Cowen-leak, 20 Jack Taylor.
