There is a Friday afternoon pitch inspection at Esher.
Round fifteen of National 1 resumes this weekend following the Christmas break and with it Rotherham Titans travel to the capital to take on Esher at Molesley Road; kick-off on Saturday is 3pm.
Titans final game of 2024 saw them collect a hard-fought, but well-deserved bonus-point win against a tenacious Darlington Mowden Park side. Indeed, Rotherham were forced to wait until the final play to secure the bonus point, which came when a crafty JB Bruzulier sneaked over from close range to score.
The win saw Rotherham end a successful year on a high following their promotion as Champions from National 2 North and sitting third in National 1, just four points behind leaders Richmond and three behind second placed side Rams.
However, Rotherham fully expect 2025 to offer even more challenges, starting with Esher who have consistently shown they can compete with any side in the division and have demonstrated that with notable wins away at Leicester Lions and at home to DMP and Dings Crusaders, their win over the latter saw them run in an impressive 7 tries.
Titans and Esher have previously met on eleven occasions with the South Yorkshire side holding an 8-3 advantage.
In the reverse fixture at Clifton Lane in week 3 Rotherham ran out 48-19 winners; however, with 15 minutes to go it was a close game as Titans held a slender 7-point lead, before a storming finish saw them score 22 points in the latter stages.
Going into this week’s game Rotherham have made just one change to the starting XV that took on DMP.
In the front row it’s the same again with hooker Luke Cole flanked by props Charlie Capps at loosehead and Andrew Foster at tighthead.
The second row sees Zak Poole move from the back row for Harry Gilson-Fox and he lines up with Curran Maguire.
In the back row John Okafor stays on the blindside as does Travis Gordon on the openside with Callum Bustin returning at number 8 for Zak Poole.
An unchanged backline sees scrum half JB Bruzulier accompanied in the half back positions by Rob Povey as Lloyd Hayes and Jamie Cooke maintain their partnership in midfield.
The back three sees Jack Townend at full back, with Tomasi Tanumi on the right wing and Ronnie Du Randt on the left wing.
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps ©, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Zak Poole ©, 5 Curran Maguire, 6 John Okafor, 7 Travis Gordon, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Alastair Donkor, 19 Harry Newborn, 20 James Naylor.
