Rotherham Titans put in an outstanding display to run out 45-26 winners over an enterprising Dings Crusaders side on a cool afternoon at Shaftesbury Park.
Titans outscored the hosts by 7 tries to 4 with dot downs coming via a brace from Callum Bustin and one each for Charlie Capps, Tomasi Tanumi, Luke Cole, Zak Poole and Lloyd Hayes, the latter also added 10 points from the tee.
This high-scoring encounter saw 71 points scored and caught fire from the off, as each side almost scored every time they entered the other’s 22, with the opening 20 minutes resembling a basketball game more than a rugby game.
The first points came as early as the sixth minute as Dings’ Tom Foot finished off under the posts following some good work in the build up from fly half Jamie Elswood.
Titans’ response wasn’t long in arriving; JB Bruzulier broke from a maul deep inside the 22 and took play up to the line before prop forward Charlie Capps barged over.
This lively Dings side however looked threatening whenever they had possession, and they regained the lead after a clever chip over the top from Jamie Elswood found centre George Boulton who showed good strength to power over whilst being tackled on the line.
Dings’ Elswood was in the action once again for the next score, but unfortunately for him it was for all the wrong reasons, as he threw a pass on the edge of his 22 which Titans Lloyd Hayes appreciatively grabbed to run in and dot down underneath the sticks.
Back came the Crusaders though with a five-metre catch-and-drive which was finished off by front row forward Tom Gollop to restore the hosts’ lead; the conversion attempt from Elswood was missed.
The frenetic free-scoring nature of the half wasn’t finished yet, as before the half-hour mark Callum Bustin’s catch-and-drive converted try gave Rotherham the lead for the first time in the game.
The lead was extended shortly after when Rotherham scored a lovely try which started on the left-hand side and was finished off on the opposite side by winger Tomasi Tanumi after involvement from Hayes, Povey and Du Randt.
The try secured the bonus point for the visitors and sent them in at the break with a 26-19 lead.
The second period saw Rotherham control much of what went on and they quickly increased their advantage when after just 2 minutes hooker Luke Cole dotted down from the tail of a powerful maul.
Zak Poole got in on the act before the hour mark when he too finished off following more powerful work from the Rotherham pack, as did Callum Bustin as he bulldozed his way over for Titans seventh try.
In the final play of the match Dings secured a well-deserved bonus point try when a move which started inside their own 22 was finished off by replacement back Sam Morton-Smith.
Rotherham would have been delighted to have secured the win against a dangerous Dings side, and they will now look forward to some time off before resuming their season against Lecester Lions at Clifton Lane in two weeks’ time.
Commenting after the game Titans Harvey Biljon said:
“We know what a dangerous team this Dings side is, especially at home. They have a great home record and have only lost here to Rams; all the games have been high scoring, and you could see their attacking threat today.
“From our players they were able to adjust and change the errors they were making in the first half.
“We can’t hide from it, we had to get on top of our discipline, which I think we did through the second half, we had to get our field position to be able to take scores and we just built our scores and built the momentum that ultimately gave us what looked like a comfortable victory, but we had to work hard for it.
“You have to give credit to the players, we made adjustments defensively, we made adjustments around our kick strategy, and we went back to playing the way we have all season.
“Whereas when we got here we probably got a little bit excited with a 4G surface and getting into areas where we just weren’t ourselves; so we had to settle and go back to being ourselves.
“I think what’s important is not to underestimate how much our team had to problem solve today.
“We lost our 10 in the first half, we had a back row player playing in the midfield through the back end of the game, we had a scrum half playing out in the back three and there were lots of moving parts going on during the game.
“However, even with that we maintained our rhythm for a good period of time, sometimes it was a little disjointed, but they problem solved and acquitted themselves pretty well.”
Titans: Bustin (2T), Capps (T), Tanumi (T), Cole (T), Poole (T), Hayes (1T, 4C), Bruzulier (1C)
Dings Crusaders: Foot (T), Boulton (T), Gollop (T), Morton-Smith (T), Elswood (3C)
Yellow Card: Hayes & Cooke (Titans), Gollop, Boulton & Taufa (Dings)
Attendance: 607
Referee: Jamie Parr
Assistant Referees: Richard Waller & Andrew Green
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey (Poole 35), 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps © (Toerien 40), 2 Luke Cole (Bergmanas 59), 3 Andrew Foster (Stout 40), 4 Harry Gilson-Fox, 5 Ellis Thomas (Naylor 59), 6 John Okafor, 7 Travis Gordon, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Rikki Stout, 28 Zak Poole ©, 21 James Naylor
Dings Crusaders: 15 Tom Foot, 14 Ollie Smith (Smith 34) (Smith 38) (Taufa 76), 13 Harry Tarling, 12 George Boulton (Capt.), 11 Sol Taufa (Rivers 61), 10 Jamie Elswood, 9 Tom Knight (Morton-Smith 53), 18 Tom Sims (Ncube 61), 19 Tom Gollop, 3 Nick English (Lloyd 62), 4 Will Thompson, 17 Matt Lane, 6 Matt Bennett (Horne 53), 7 Pat Zindi, 8 Alex Bilton.
Replacements: 5 Josh Lloyd, 1 Brian Ncube, 16 Harry Horne, 21 Sam Morton-Smith, 22 Max Rivers.
