Team News: Titans v Rams

Round 23 of National 1 sees Rotherham Titans travel to the outskirts of Reading where they’ll take on top-end side Rams Rugby at Old Bath Road; kick off on Saturday is 3pm.

Rotherham will go into the game on the back of a hard-fought encounter against Sedgley Park, where they deservedly came out on top in a 10-try thriller, 38-29 at Clifton Lane.

Sedgley kept the Titans honest for the full 80 minutes, but six tries from Luckas Sableman-Blue, Harry Gilson-Fox, Callum Bustin, Morgan Veness, Zach Toerien and Lloyd Hayes ensured the South Yorkshire side maintained their second-place position in the league, five points behind Richmond at the top.

As always however in National 1 the tough games keep on coming and this week’s challenge is one of the toughest of the season.

Despite Rams form since the beginning of February not being as they would like, the threat they pose is clear to see with the quality of their squad.

Nilling Sale FC and beating Plymouth Albion away are just 2 of their outstanding results this term and Rotherham will need to be at their best if they are to come away with any kind of result.

In the reverse fixture at Clifton Lane back in November Titans edged a tight affair 21-14 with both sides scoring 2 tries.

Going into this week’s game Rotherham have made two changes to their starting XV.

In the front row hooker Morgan Veness has been recalled by Cambridge and he is replaced by Harry Newborn who moves from the back row, and he’ll be flanked by props Charlie Capps at loosehead and Andrew Foster at tighthead.

The second row sees the return of skipper Zak Poole as John Okafor moves into the back row and he’ll partner Harry Gilson-Fox.

In the back row John Okafor will fill the blindside position with Travis Gordon on the openside and Callum Bustin at number 8.

Across the backline Rotherham go with the same half back combination of scrum half JB Bruzulier and fly half Rob Povey.

The midfield remains the same too as Lloyd Hayes and Jamie Cooke link up again.

The back three sees Ronnie Du Randt move from full back to the wing for Calum Barrett, with Luckas Sableman-Blue on the other wing and Jack Townend at full back.

Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Ronnie Du Randt, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps ©, 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Zak Poole ©, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Travis Gordon, 8 Callum Bustin.

Replacements: 16 Loma Kivalu 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Joji Logavatu, 19 Curran Maguire, 20 Tomasi Tanumi.