Round three of National 1 sees Rotherham Titans face a stiff challenge when they host fellow newly promoted side Esher; kick-off at Clifton Lane on Saturday is 2pm.
Titans impressed last time out with a resounding 45-28 win at Darlington Mowden Park, running in six tries for a fine win on the road.
The victory was Titans second of the season and keeps them unbeaten at this early stage. Nevertheless, following promotion from Nat 2 last year, their performances against Rosslyn Park and Darlington has clearly shown they are capable of competing against sides at this higher level.
However, this week’s challenge will be a testing one when Esher rock up at Clifton Lane. The Surrey-based outfit have a reputation as a free-scoring side that can attack from anywhere on the park.
Indeed, their tally from last season of 1108 points was the second highest across all four of the National leagues; only Leeds Tykes scored more…just.
Esher’s start to the season has been a touch tricky as they’ve had two tough fixtures to contend with.
On the opening weekend they travelled to Sedgley Park, and whilst they held the lead early in the second half, Sedgley bounced back to run away with the game. Similarly last week Esher took on Nat 1 favourites Rams, and whilst after 50 minutes there was nothing in the game, Rams eventually ran out 43-24 winners.
So the threat is there and Rotherham will know that.
The teams have met previously on ten occasions with Rotherham holding a 7-3 advantage. The last time being in 2019 at Clifton Lane in National 1; that day Roth ran out 22-12 winners with a hat trick of tries from Seb Nagle-Taylor and one from Rikki Stout.
Going into this game Titans have made just three changes to their starting XV.
In the front row Jack Bergmanas comes in at hooker for Luke Cole and he will be flanked by Charlie Capps at loosehead and Andrew Foster at tighthead; whilst Zak Poole is joined again in the second row by Curran Maguire.
In the back row John Okafor returns from injury and he comes in for Ben Copley at blindside, whilst Harry Newborn retains his spot on the openside as does Callum Bustin in the number 8 shirt.
The sole change across the backline sees James Naylor come in at scrum half for JB Bruzulier and he links up with Rob Povey in the half back positions.
Tomasi Tanumi and Lloyd Hayes partner up again in midfield, whilst the back three sees Travis Gideon and Jamie Cooke on the wings with Ronnie Du Randt at full back.
Looking ahead to the match Titans Harvey Biljon said:
“I was really pleased how the players went about their business at Darlington. Everything was underpinned by going away from home and facing our first challenge as a squad with the bumps and bruises and everything else and we came away with a 5-point victory.
“However, do we as a group want to get better, do we want to make sure we don’t let teams in for bonus point tries… of course we do; but fundamentally you could see us change gear in the game and secure the bonus point in the first half. The challenge now is to maintain focus, stick to task and keep our discipline so that we don’t give opportunities to the opposition.
“I think we had a good balance and impact in the way we rolled the bench; I thought the bench added and contributed to the whole performance. And having built that lead and the 10-point buffer it gave us the chance to be a bit braver and go for a couple of those opportunities and I was really impressed with the decision making on the field.
“We’ll try to do the same again this week, but the important message is don’t underestimate Esher!
Esher are a well balanced side and from the tries they have scored they seem to be a team that can build a score through backs and forwards and they are putting something together where they have an all-round game, especially when it comes to their attack.
“They have come up against two very tough teams and they picked up a bonus point against Rams which shows where they’re at. Having watched them they are a team that can score tries and if you’re not on top of it, they can get away from you.
“So we know what’s coming and I’m delighted that we are back at Clifton Lane in front of our supporters! I was looking forward to training at the start of the week and I’m excited that we go into this game coming off two wins. Hopefully we can put in a performance that will give us a chance to keep that run going.”
Titans: 15 Ronnie Du Randt, 14 Travis Gideon, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Tomasi Tanumi, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Rob Povey, 9 James Naylor, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Zak Poole (Capt.), 5 Curran Maguire, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Ellis Thomas, 20 JB Bruzulier.
