Rotherham Titans impressed in week 2 of National 1 with a 45-28 win over Darlington Mowden Park on a sunny afternoon at the Darlington Arena.
Titans outscored the hosts by 6 tries to 4 with a brace of dot downs for both Zak Poole and Callum Bustin, with Ronni Du Randt and Harry Newborn also crossing the whitewash. Lloyd Hayes sealed a perfect afternoon from the tee with 15 points.
The key to the game was Titans blistering start which saw them race into a 21-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes.
Titans powerful pack laid the foundations as Zak Poole and Callum Bustin bulldozed over for the opening two tries.
This was quickly followed by full back Ronnie Du Randt cutting through to dot down.
A shell shocked Park were forced into making a couple of changes and this lead to former Titan Garry Law coming on in the 23rd minute.
Park worked themselves back into the contest and got on the board when live-wire scrum half Ben Douglas broke through to score.
Rotherham however were in no mood to take their foot off the pedal.
Lloyd Hayes extended Rotherham’s advantage shortly after with a 3-pointer from the tee, before in the final play of the half Harry Newborn secured the bonus point as he finished off after good work from Travis Gideon.
The second half saw the home side make the game a far more even affair.
Indeed, two quick tries after the restart from Ben Douglas and Ollie Walker narrowed Park’s deficit to 31-21 to give them hope of a remarkable comeback.
Sparked back into life however, Rotherham snuffed out the home sides hopes quickly as Bustin and Poole both barged over to effectively wrap up the game.
Credit to Park though, they never gave up and a minute from time they grabbed a deserved bonus point when centre Ben Frankland dotted down.
Rotherham can be delighted, if a little surprised, with their start in National 1 as two wins from their opening two games sees them just a point behind leaders Rams.
The focus will now switch to next Saturday’s home encounter against fellow promoted side Esher at Clifton Lane.
Speaking after the game Harvey Biljon reflected:
“I am absolutely delighted that we have come away from home with a really tough test and got five points; that for this team is a brilliant achievement.
“I think there’ll be a fair bit of learning on how competitive this league is; Darlington did not give up and they thoroughly deserved their four tries and the bonus point.
“At the same time we’ve got to learn not to give those up; there was probably a couple of passes in the first and second half where I think if we can get that right on the pitch, we can make further improvement.
“We have said from the beginning that this is a squad performance and yes we do have a long injury list, but it’s great to see the squad come together and still travel in the right direction and be able to step in and stick to task around what the team is trying to achieve.
“It was great to see those guys come in today; Travis Gideon, James Naylor and Ben Copley all did a great job. Hopefully they’ve got a taste for it and want to keep on taking this club in the right direction.
At this early stage I think we are exceeding expectation, but let’s try and ride the wave as long as we can; we know it’s not going to be easy and we have an even bigger test coming up next in Esher, but let’s try and enjoy the journey and keep improving.”
Titans: Poole (2T), Bustin (2T), Du Randt (T), Newborn (T), Hayes (6C, 1P)
Darlington Mowden Park: Douglas (2T), Walker (T), Frankland (T), Law (4C)
Yellow Card: Newborn (Titans)
Attendance: 712
Referee: Ben Rayner
Assistant Referees: Brendan Fitzmaurice & Simon Williams
Titans: 15 Ronnie Du Randt, 14 Travis Gideon, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Tomasi Tanumi, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Naylor 67), 1 Charlie Capps (Co-Capt.) (Kivalu 32) (Capps 58) (Kivalu 32) , 2 Luke Cole (Bergmanas 45), 3 Andrew Foster (Stout 32) (Foster 58) (Stout 78), 4 Zak Poole (Co-Capt.), 5 Curran Maguire, 6 Ben Copley (Allan 62), 7 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin (Copley 67).
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Lewis Allan, 20 James Naylor.
Darlington Mowden Park: 15 Josh Ree, 14 Ollie Walker, 13 Liam Checksfield, 12 Ben Frankland, 11 Ewan Greenlaw, 10 Harry Read (Law23), 9 Ben Douglas, 1 Alfie Barron, 2 Sam Kyle-Clay (Harrison 64), 3 Eoin Harrison (Fantini 23), 4 Oscar Usher (Hall-Lyon 62), 5 Louis Peacock, 6 Max Fraine (Oliver 62), 7 Will Jones (Capt.) (Fraine 78), 8 Joe Craggs.
Replacements: 16 Jacob Oliver, 17 Ethan Hall-Lyon, 18 Yaree Fantini, 19 Garry Law, 20 Callum Trees.
