Rotherham Titans made a dream start on their return to National 1 with a hard-fought, but well-deserved 31-21 win over a very good Rosslyn Park side.
Titans shared a 6-try thriller with their dot downs coming via Luke Cole, John Okafor and Callum Bustin, whilst Lloyd Hayes added 16 points from the tee.
The downside for Rotherham was back rower Travis Gordon and centre Joe Mounsey both left the field with nasty looking injuries.
The game was very competitive and close throughout; the visitors showed an appetite to play with ball in hand, whilst Rotherham stayed very controlled, allowing their powerful pack to set-up a dominant platform to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Indeed, Titans registered the first points of the game when hooker Luke Cole dotted down from the base of a maul and when Lloyd Hayes added a penalty just before the 20-minute mark, the home side would have been content with their start to Nat 1.
Rosslyn Park have been touted as one of the favourites to win the league and as any good side would, they bounced back quickly as hooker Jasper Cameron powered over for Stefan James to convert.
The intensity was high from both teams and in the space of 2 minutes around the half-hour mark both sides scored again.
John Okafor showed good awareness close to the line to pick up and dive over, whilst Park’s former Titan Charlie Mulchrone, took one of his trademark quick tap-penalties to break and send in full back Joe Luca Smith.
Just before the break Hayes sent over another penalty and the home side went in at the break leading 20-14.
Rosslyn took the lead in the game for the first time early after the restart when that man Mulchrone popped up again to score himself; James added the extras.
Now Rotherham would be examined and their mentality put to the test; the outcome of which was a resounding pass!
Firstly, Hayes nosed Rotherham back into the lead with his third penalty, before on 65 minutes back rower Callum Bustin dotted down following a hugely powerful maul from the impressive pack.
Trailing 28-21 there was a tense finish to the game as Rosslyn Park went in search of a converted try to level the match.
Rotherham however, stood firm and with great intensity kept out the visitors, eventually going on in injury time to grab a late Hayes penalty and deny Park any reward for their spirited efforts.
Rotherham will now quickly regroup, dust themselves down and switch focus to next week’s assignment away at Darlington Mowden Park.
After the game Titans’ Harvey Biljon said:
“The team had to step up to some adversity through the first game of the season after losing a big player like Travis Gordon inside the first 10 minutes. Your team needs to adapt to that pretty quickly and they did that well.
“There were a couple of key areas I need to commend the team on, particularly how they stuck to task, because you could see how dangerous Rosslyn Park was. They had three or four opportunities in the first half and they scored with two of them.
“You can see that we’re going to have to get used to the physicality and fitness in this league, because through the back end of the game there was some real effort required and from a conditioning point of view we were really tested.
“Rosslyn Park just kept coming at us; if you look at their team on paper compared to ours, I think anyone with any rugby understanding would not have put Rotherham in the equation.
“However, being at Clifton Lane with the support base we have here made a big difference. I think that what’s sport is all about – having days like today – and today was a good day for the club!”
Titans: Cole (T), Okafor (T), Bustin (T), Hayes (2C, 4P)
Rosslyn Park: Cameron (T), Joe Luca Smith (T), Mulchrone (T) James (3C)
Yellow Card: JB Bruzulier (Titans)
Attendance: 250
Referee: Matt Sharpe
Assistant Referees: Ian Farrell & Matt Daubney
Titans: 15 Ronnie Du Randt, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Joe Mounsey (Green 60), 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps (Co-Capt.) (Kivalu 32) (Capps 53), 2 Luke Cole (Bergmanas 40), 3 Andrew Foster (Stout 32) (Foster 53), 4 Zak Poole (Co-Capt.), 5 Curran Maguire (Kivalu 68), 6 John Okafor, 7 Travis Gordon (Newborn 8), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Harry Newborn, 20 Max Green.
Rosslyn Park: 15 Joe Luca Smith, 14 Charlie Walker, 13 Theo Manihera, 12 Matt Gordon, 11 Benji Marfo, 10 Stefan James (Smith 68), 9 Charlie Mulchrone (Capt.) (Fenley 68), 1 Josh Pieterse (Cade 21) (Charalambous 68), 2 Jasper Cameron, 3 Rhys Charalambous (Woodward 53), 4 Gregor Gillanders, 5 Jordan Martin, 6 Matt Bolwell, 7 Archie Hoskin, 8 Jack Digby (Stevenson 55).
Replacements: 16 Conrad Cade, 17 Matt Woodward, 18 Craig Stevenson, 19 Ewan Fenley, 20 Luc Smith.
Photo: Gareth Siddons