Round ten of National 1 sees Rotherham Titans on the road for another away-day challenge, when the travel to the North West to take on Sedgley Park; kick-off at Park Lane on Saturday is 2:30pm.
Last week the Titans put in a huge defensive display to edge out Plymouth Albion 18-17 at Clifton Lane.
The crucial last-kick-of-the-match from the league’s leading point’s scorer, Lloyd Hayes, secured Rotherham’s seventh win of the campaign and keeps them third in the table.
However, any away trip in this division is a tough one and Sedgley Park will be no different.
Park have already shown they’re capable of giving the best in the division a run for their money, with their 41-26 beating of Plymouth Albion.
Equally, last week away at leaders Rams, Park looked to cause a major upset when early in the second half they led 22-14. However, the title favourites showed their position is warranted with a fine comeback to maintain their unbeaten status.
And so Rotherham won’t underestimate their task this weekend, particularly as they have only won 2 of the last 8 meetings and have only ever won once at Park Lane, that coming back in 2006.
The overall head-to-head is tight too; the teams have met on 14 occasions with the scores standing at 6 apiece, with two draws.
Going into this week’s game Roth have made five changes to their starting XV.
There’s a new front row combination which sees Jack Bergmanas come in for Luke Cole at hooker, Loma Kivalu at loosehead for Charlie Capps and Alastair Donkor at tighthead for Rikki Stout.
The second row sees Curran Maguire lining up alongside Harry Gilson-Fox, as Zak Poole moves into the back row at blindside for Ellis Thomas, whilst Harry Newborn stays on the openside and Callum Bustin at number 8.
The sole change across the backline is at scrum half where 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, as do a back three of Ronnie Du Randt and Aidan Shortall on the wings, with Jack Townend at full back.
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Aidan Shortall, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey, 9 James Naylor, 1 Loma Kivalu, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Alastair Donkor, 4 Harry Gilson-Fox, 5 Curran Maguire, 6 Zak Poole ©, 7 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Charlie Capps ©, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Frankie Gascoigne, 20 JB Bruzulier.
