Rotherham Titans secured a well-deserved 35-30 victory over a dangerous Sedgley Park side on a grey afternoon at Park Lane.
The bonus point win saw each team score 4 tries with Titans dot downs coming from Rob Povey, Jack Bergmanas, Zak Poole and Luke Cole, with Lloyd Hayes adding 15 points from the tee.
The win was a hard fought one and keeps Rotherham third ahead of the league leaders Rams visit to Clifton Lane next Saturday.
The game was anticipated to be a closely fought affair and that’s how it transpired as both teams gave their all.
Rotherham took the lead as early as the fourth minute when a nice short pass from Lloyd Hayes found Rob Povey who eyed a gap in the defence to race through and score under the posts. Hayes added the extras.
Back came Park however with winger Rhys Henderson taking advantage down the right hand side to score. Warren Seals missed the conversion to leave his side trailing.
Roth extended their lead shortly after when a powerful drive from over ten metres out saw Jack Bergmanas dot down from the tail for a converted try.
In this seesaw battle Sedgley narrowed their deficit to just two points with a lovely try from Andy Riley after good work in the build up from number 8 Tom Ailes.
The match momentum at this point tilted in favour of the home side. Seals gave Park the lead for the first time with a penalty, before late in the half hooker Adam Mallinson crashed over to score an unconverted try.
Crucially however, with the final kick of the half Titans Lloyd Hayes knocked over a 3-pointer to send his side in narrowly trailing 20-17.
Rotherham would have been concerned 8 minutes into the second period when Henderson grabbed his second try from a Warren Seals cross-field kick to dot down. Seals’ conversion stretched the home sides advantage to 10 points.
Titans would have to dig deep and find an answer if they were to secure just their second ever win at Park Lane.
And indeed they did!
Before the hour mark two converted tries put Rotherham back ahead.
Firstly, captain Zak Poole stretched over to score following some good work by the pack. That was his 49th league try which puts him level with all-time club try scorer John Dudley.
Then Harry Newborn broke away on halfway before finding Luke Cole in support, he collected and showed good pace to charge in from 30 metres.
Two late penalties from Lloyd Hayes extended Roth’s lead to 35-27 and crucially beyond a converted try.
However, with the last kick of the game Warren Seals bagged a penalty to give Sedgley Park a deserved 2nd bonus point for their efforts.
Titans would have been relieved but delighted with their victory. The only blight on the afternoon was Harry Newborn being stretched off with a nasty looking injury.
Speaking after the game Harvey Biljon reflected:
“What a performance away from home to get 5 points against a team that really fronted up and you’ve got to give Sedgley Park their credit.
“For me the impressive part was how we showed composure throughout the game. We never looked flustered, we remained calm and we just worked our way up the pitch and then went and got our scores.
“When you come up against a team that has the ability to score from anywhere, they are going to get scores against the run of play and that’s what they did.
“On the whole our control and composure was key, as was taking our opportunities when they came; whether that be three or five points.
“However, we’ll go away and address a couple of things, because there is always one or two elements where you can go away and train on them during the week to make sure we are better.
“But overall I was pleased with what we did today and Sedgley deserved their 2 points.”
Titans: Povey (T), Bergmanas (T), Poole (T), Cole (T), Hayes (3C, 3P)
Sedgley Park: Henderson (2T), A. Riley (T), Mallinson (T), Seals (2C, 2P)
Yellow Card: Bustin & Capps (Titans)
Attendance: 400
Referee: Henry Pearson
Assistant Referees: Kieron Henry & Paul Fincken
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Aidan Shortall, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey, 9 James Naylor (Bruzulier 46), 1 Loma Kivalu (Capps 40), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Cole 42), 3 Alastair Donkor (Foster 40), 4 Harry Gilson-Fox, 5 Curran Maguire, 6 Zak Poole ©, 7 Harry Newborn (Gascoigne 61), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 30 Charlie Capps ©, 18 Andrew Foster, 27 Frankie Gascoigne, 20 JB Bruzulier.
Sedgley Park: 15 Andy Riley, 14 Rhys Henderson, 13 Matt Law, 12 Matt Riley © (Glasse 70), 11 Albert Bradshaw, 10 Warren Seals, 9 Matt Sturgess, 1 John Blanchard (Downham 32) (Blanchard 60), 2 Adam Mallinson, 3 Tye Raymont (Rylance 32) (Raymont 60), 4 Bob Birtwell, 5 Connor James, 6 Braemar Murray (Deans 24), 7 Lewis Bradley, 8 Tom Ailes.
Replacements: 16 Austin Downham, 17 James O’Connell, 18 Danny Rylance, 19 Oliver Glasse, 20 Isaac Deans.
