This Saturday in round eight of National League 1 Rotherham Titans face a tricky test when they travel to the Midlands to take on old rivals Birmingham Moseley; kick-off at Billesley Common is 3pm.
Last week Titans suffered a disappointing home defeat to Bishop’s Stortford after a sluggish start saw them go in at half time trailing 35-8.
Rotherham improved significantly after the break, winning the second period 26-10; but they were unable to bridge the gap in the allotted time.
Roth will be aware they can’t afford another slow start against old foes Moseley, as they are flying high in fourth spot having enjoyed a productive start to their season, winning five of their first seven games.
The Midlanders have registered impressive wins over Dings Crusaders, Leicester Lions, Bishop’s Stortford, Blackheath and Sedgley Park, with their two defeats coming away at Plymouth Albion and last time out at league leaders Rams.
Although Rotherham haven’t played Moseley since the 2019/20 season, they are long-term rivals having met on 42 previous occasions, most of which took place when both sides were competing in level 2, now the Championship, with the overall head-to-head standing at 28-14 in Titans favour.
Going into this week’s game Roth have made six changes to their starting XV.
Two of the changes come in the front row where hooker Luke Cole comes in for Jack Bergmanas. He is joined by props Charlie Capps at loosehead and Rikki Stout who comes in for Andrew Foster at tighthead.
The second row stays the same with Curran Maguire lining up alongside Zak Poole.
The back row sees one change with Ellis Thomas coming in at blindside for John Okafor, whilst Harry Newborn will operate on the openside and Callum Bustin at number 8.
Across the backline scrum half James Naylor is given the nod over JB Bruzulier and he will accompany Rob Povey in the half back positions.
Lloyd Hayes and Jamie Cooke maintain their partnership in midfield.
However, there is change in the back three as Ronnie Du Randt moves from full back to the wing for Tomasi Tanumi, with Jack Townend filling the 15 shirt.
The final change comes on the other wing with Aidan Shortall coming in for Jack Hedley. Shortall has joined the Titans this week from Bury St Edmunds and can play a variety of positions across the backline.
Commenting ahead of the game Harvey Biljon said:
“We have to see how the squad respond to the next challenges because the bumps will be feeling a little bit more painful after the Bishop's Stortford game.
“We are going to be challenged at Moseley but sometimes you've got to come through that and stick with it.
“I still back the group we've got; we need to learn from the key moments against Bishop’s and make sure we stay who we are and that we go forward and nothing changes.”
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Aidan Shortall, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey, 9 James Naylor, 1 Charlie Capps ©, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Rikki Stout, 4 Zak Poole ©, 5 Curran Maguire, 6 Ellis Thomas, 7 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Laurence Cowen-Leak, 20 JB Bruzulier.
