Round seventeen of National 1 sees Rotherham Titans travel to the Frenchay area of Bristol to take on Dings Crusaders at Shaftesbury Park; kick-off on Saturday is 3pm.
Following the winter break and a postponed fixture Titans finally began their 2025 last week with a hard-fought 23-17 win over a motivated Sale FC side at Clifton Lane.
The South Yorkshire outfit thought they’d secured the bonus point over Sale with a try in the final play, but unfortunately for them the referee spotted an infringement in the build-up.
Nevertheless, it was another impressive win and one which keeps Rotherham in touch at the business end of the table.
The tough games keep on coming however and this week assignment away to Dings Crusaders will test Rotherham to the limit.
Dings have already this term showed their capabilities and, on their day, can go toe-to-toe with the best in the division; their narrow 26-17 loss away at Rams last week is testament to that.
Dings have also secured wins this season over Sedgley Park (home and away) and at Shaftesbury Park further wins over Plymouth Albion, Darlington Mowden Park, Sale FC and Bishop’s Stortford, whilst also notably securing a draw against league leaders Richmond.
When the sides met earlier in the season at Clifton Lane Rotherham ran out 45-19 winners with John Okafor standing out with a hat trick of tries; Callum Bustin and Loma Kivalu also dotted down with Lloyd Hayes adding 20 points from the tee.
Going into this week’s match Rotherham have made four changes to their starting XV.
In the front row hooker Luke Cole comes in for Jack Bergmanas and he is flanked by props Charlie Capps at loosehead and Andrew Foster at tighthead.
The second row sees Harry Gilson-Fox come in for Curran Maguire and Ellis Thomas come in for Zak Poole.
The back row remains the same with John Okafor at blindside, Travis Gordon on the openside with Callum Bustin at number 8.
Across the backline scrum half JB Bruzulier is again accompanied in the half back positions by Rob Povey, with Lloyd Hayes and Jamie Cooke maintaining their partnership in midfield.
The back three sees Jack Townend at full back, with Tomasi Tanumi coming in for Cuchulain Livingstone on one wing and Ronnie Du Randt on the other.
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 Harry Gilson-Fox, 5 Ellis Thomas, 6 John Okafor, 7 Travis Gordon, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Zak Poole ©, 20 James Naylor
