Rotherham Titans are excited to be involved in another Yorkshire derby this weekend, when they travel to the West of the county to take on Huddersfield at Lockwood Park; kick-off on Saturday is 2pm.
This will be Rotherham’s tenth Yorkshire derby of the season, with six more to come before the campaign finishes in April.
As with most derby games the league table often becomes irrelevant, the bragging rights go up for grabs and whoever wants it most on the day typically comes away with the spoils.
However, Rotherham will be acutely aware of the Huddersfield threat, having lost on their two previous visits to Lockwood Park.
Indeed Rotherham has never beaten Huddersfield away and last season’s defeat saw Titans return home without a point as they got on the wrong end of a 39-27 score; all of which suggests Rotherham will give Huddersfield their full respect.
The league head-to-head between the sides stands at 3 wins each.
Titans go into this weekend’s match in good form having won their last 4 games and indeed having lost just once this season, that coming away at league leaders Leeds Tykes; so they’ll be keen to continue their impressive run.
Huddersfield have found life more difficult this season, but their bonus point 24-8 win over Billingham two weeks ago shows there is still plenty left in the tank and they’ll fancy making it 3 in a row over Rotherham.
Going into the game Titans have made five changes to the starting XV that beat Lymm last time out, three of which come in the forwards.
In the front row Luke Cole comes in at hooker for Jack Bergmanas, whilst in the second row skipper Zak Poole comes in from his usual number 8 position as cover for the injured Matt Challinor and Rupert Kay comes into the back row for Lewis Allan.
Along the backline Harry Dunne will make his 100th appearance for the club as he returns at inside centre, as Tomasi Tanumi moves on to the wing for Tainne Finn and Will Metcalfe starts at scrum half for JB Bruzulier.
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jack Taylor, 10 Will Milner, 9 Will Metcalfe, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Gareth Denman, 5 Zak Poole (Capt.), 19 John Okafor, 7 Rupert Kay, 25 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 30 Reece Ward, 18 Marcus Payne, 20 JB Bruzulier.