Titans beat Esher with second half come back

Rotherham Titans stunned Esher to with a mighty second half display to run out 68-34 winners on a mild afternoon at Molesley Road.

Trailing 31-12 at the break Rotherham looked to be in a bit of trouble.

However, a powerful second forty from the South Yorkshire side saw them score 8 tries to win the half 56-3.

In total Rotherham scored 10 tries, one of which was a penalty try, with the other nine coming from Ellis Thomas, Callum Bustin, Ronnie Du Randt, Tomasi Tanumi, Charlie Capps, JB Bruzulier, Jamie Cooke, Zak Poole and Lloyd Hayes, with the latter adding 16 points from the tee.

Zak Poole’s try was his 51st for Rotherham, making him the clubs all-time leading try scorer, beating John Dudley’s record of 50, which included one in the cup.

Titans victory keeps them in second place in the table and narrows the gap to Richmond at the top to 2 points.

However, after 33 minutes of the game it looked unlikely that Rotherham would be returning home with any points after Esher made a blistering start by racing into a 31-7 lead, wrapping up the try bonus point along the way.

Esher scrum half Henry Mortimer helped himself to a fine hat trick, with flanker Olly Norris also crossing the whitewash.

Titans only response in that opening 30 minutes was an Ellis Thomas try under the sticks following a period of powerful ball retention by the forwards close to the line.

Crucially however just before the break Rotherham added a second try when number 8 Callum Bustin crashed his way over to send his side in at the break trailing 31-12.

With much to do in the second half it was important Rotherham made inroads early on.

This they did and incredibly inside the opening 10 minutes they ran in three converted tries to take the lead!

Ronnie Du Randt showed some clever footwork for the first try, Tomasi Tanumi finished off nicely in the far corner after a delightful cross-field kick from Rob Povey and Charlie Capps powered over from a 5-metre line out.

To Esher’s credit they retook the lead shortly after with a Tom Walker penalty, but that would be as good as it got for the hosts.

In a frenetic final 20 minutes Rotherham scored five further tries, the first of which was a penalty try after Esher illegally stopped a Titans scrum from scoring on their line when full back Harry Faulkner decided to join the party.

Lloyd Hayes was the next to score after Zak Poole stripped Esher of the ball and sent the centre in at the corner.

JB Bruzulier was next to score when he dotted down after taking the ball out of the back of a maul to work his way over.

Jamie Cooke scored Titans ninth try which was probably the best of the match.

The move started inside the Titans 22 when Lloyd Hayes received the ball 10 metres from his line. The centre made a terrific break down into the Esher half before finding Zak Poole in support; he in turn found Ronnie Du Randt who fed the ball out to Jamie Cooke for a belter of a score!

The tenth and final try fittingly came for the skipper Zak Poole who showed great awareness to take a quick tap-and-go penalty to seal an outstanding second half display and stunning victory.

The Titans will now rest a few bruised bodies before quickly switching their focus to the visit of Birmingham Moseley to Clifton Lane this Saturday.

Reflecting post-match Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“I think it took us 30 minutes to get off the bus, but there was a key moment when we got the score just before half time.

“We had to be realistic; we only had the ball 3 times in the first half and scored twice and the rest is probably just a little bit of ill discipline and us not executing.

“However, in the same breath of air weren’t Esher good at what they did in the first half. To go against a defence that’s prides itself, I think they deserved their tries.

“I think what was crucial was half time and the clear messages in the way we needed to adapt in the second half.

“I was really impressed with the playing group, because sometimes those moments can get emotional, but what they did is they got some specific messages, they stuck to task and to and have such a dominant second half in the way they did, I was very proud of them today.”

Titans: Pen Try, Thomas (T), Bustin (T), Du Randt (T), Tanumi (T), Capps (T), Bruzulier (T), Cooke (T), Poole (T), Hayes (T, 8C)

Esher: Mortimer (3T), Norris (T), Walker (4C, 2P)

Yellow Card: None

Attendance: 485

Referee: Alan Chandrachud

Assistant Referees: Alex Powdrell & Andrew Green

Titans: 15 Ronnie Du Randt, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Calum Barrett, 10 Rob Povey (Naylor 76), 9 James Naylor (Bruzulier 41), 1 Charlie Capps © (Toerien 65), 2 Morgan Veness, 3 Andrew Foster (Harrison 70), 4 Zak Poole ©, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 Ellis Thomas (Newborn 25), 7 Travis Gordon, 8 Callum Bustin (Logavatu 72).

Replacements: 16 Harry Newborn, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Eoin Harrison, 27 Joji Logavatu, 20 JB Bruzulier.

Esher: 15 Harry Faulkner, 14 Fergus Donnelly, 13 Myles Rawstron-Rudd (Keh 62), 12 Owen Waters, 11 Stan Norman, 10 Tom Walker, 9 Henry Mortimer (Bullock 52), 1 Emmett Murphy, 2 Joe Vajner (Larson 28) (Vajner 31), 3 Henry Pearson (Ashworth 41), 4 Alex McLean, 5 Adam Bullett (Larson 48), 6 Olly Norris, 7 Gabriel Seriki, 23 Frankie Souto (Pearson 43) (Gayle 64).

Replacements: 16 Reece Larson, 17 Caleb Ashworth, 18 Taylor Gayle, 19 Johnny Keh, 20 Sam Bullock.