Rotherham Titans face another tough test on Saturday when they host high-fliers Sheffield in round 19 of National 2 North; kick-off at Clifton Lane is 2pm.
Following last week’s impressive win at Fylde comes another huge challenge for Rotherham with the visit of third placed side Sheffield.
The Abbeydale outfit are on a hot streak having won their last 10 games on the spin and are unbeaten in 12.
During that run they have impressed with wins against Wharfedale, Fylde, Sheffield Tigers, both Hull Clubs and put over 70 points on Huddersfield.
Indeed, Sheffield hasn’t lost a game since October last year, where on that day they were on the wrong side of a result against Rotherham.
There’s no doubt they have improved a lot during the season and they will fancy putting one over the Titans this time around.
Equally, Rotherham are in fine form having won their last 6 games and impressed in difficult circumstances last week in the North West against Fylde.
The teams have met on 4 competitive occasions, 3 times in the league in which Rotherham won all 3 and once in the Pilkington Cup in 1989, where on that day the game was drawn 13-13, but Rotherham went through as the away side; Titans Director of Rugby, Martin Jenkinson, scored Rotherham’s only try of the game.
Going into this week’s match Titans have made five changes to the starting XV that beat Fylde, three of which come in the forwards.
In the front row Luke Cole comes in at hooker for Jack Bergmanas and Loma Kivalu comes in at tight head prop for Reece Ward, whilst in the back row Callum Bustin comes in for injured skipper Zak Poole, meaning Charlie Capps will captain the side.
Along the backline there’s a return to duty for Dan Rundle who comes in on the wing for Jack Taylor and JB Bruzulier is given the nod at scrum half over Will Metcalfe.
Speaking ahead of the match Titans Gaz Lewis said:
“We were delighted to get the win at Fylde; I thought the lads put in a real professional second half performance. Fylde put us under a lot pressure in the first half and if they’d been a little more accurate they could have been two or three tries up and maybe we were a little fortunate in the first forty.
“However, we regrouped at half time, obviously losing Zak inside the first 30 was a hurdle we had to overcome, but in the second half I thought it was a different story. We managed to control the ball, control field position and then go to work in the graveyard and build that pressure which eventually told.
“I thought the way Cappsy stepped-up as our stand-in Skipper was first class. He’s developing that aspect of leadership to his game. Also our experienced players like JB and Smithy had very influential second half performances, but as a team and a group it was really an accomplished second half response and to get five points at Fylde is a really good achievement.
“We’ll need that type of performance again on Saturday as we have another tough challenge against our local rivals Sheffield.
“They’ve won 10 on the spin and they’re confidence will be sky high. They have some individuals who are having stellar seasons; scrum half Elliot Fisher is the top try scorer in the league and he’s a very talented player, former Titan Ryan Burrows is very experienced and he’s playing really well, as is another former Roth player in Jonny West.
“Then there’s the Rotherham connection with the coaching staff; Anthony Posa and Craig West are very well known to the club and they are doing an excellent job at Abbeydale.
“They have a good line out with Dom Parsons and he’ll guarantee some success in that area, obviously Fisher and Westy at half backs will be threatening and Ant Posa’s rugby philosophy is to play coast-to-coast and to attack from all areas of the field.
“So we’re expecting them to have a real crack at us and we’ll have to make sure we’re on the money and we play to our strengths and defend like we know we can.”
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Dan Rundle, 10 Will Milner, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps (Capt.), 2 Luke Cole, 3 Loma Kivalu, 4 John Okafor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Marcus Payne, 7 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Gareth Denman, 18 Laurence Cowen-Leak, 19 Lewis Allan, 20 Will Metcalfe.
