Titans beaten at Rams

Rotherham Titans put in a huge physical effort against a good Rams side before ultimately falling to a 30-19 defeat on a mild afternoon at Old Bath Road.

Rams outscored the Titans by 4 tries to 3 with Rotherham’s dot downs coming from Travis Gordon, Tomasi Tanumi and Ronnie Du Randt.

The outcome of the game could have been very different had Rotherham finished off some good opportunities and the bounce of the ball been more favourable for the South Yorkshire side, but some days just don’t go your way and that’s rugby.

Rams took the lead as early as the third minute when Rotherham, who looked to be going close themselves just 5 metres away from the Rams line, threw a pass that went astray; the home side hacked downfield before a foot rack saw full back Zach Clow hacked on again and a nice bounce enabled him to crash over.

Rams scored two further first tries in the first half that Rotherham would have been disappointed to have conceded.

Missed tackles on both occasions saw firstly hooker Max Hayman crash over from close range before scrum half Ollie Hodgson dotted down under the sticks.

One thing that can never be questioned with this Rotherham side is the heart, determination and the desire they have to keep battling for the full 80 minutes.

Before the break they gained some reward for their efforts with a superb try from back rower Travis Gordon, who after receiving a nice pass from Jamie Cooke 40 metres out, showed good pace and awareness to dot down.

Coming out for the second half and trailing 17-5 Rotherham would have hoped to have scored first.

However, that was not to be as another bouncing ball fell favourably for the home side and former Titan Sam Boxhall was on hand to go over next to the posts for his side’s bonus point try.

Rams advantage was extended to 27-5 shortly after when Fraser Honey knocked over a long-range penalty.

Rotherham continued to graft hard however and secured their second try with a nice move through the backs which saw Tomasi Tanumi finish off for a lovey score.

Rams kept the scoreboard ticking over with another Fraser Honey penalty, but Rotherham narrowed the gap again late on when JB Bruzulier fed a pass out wide for winger Ronnie Du Randt to score.

Although the game had gone now, one more try for Rotherham would have seen them grab a well-deserved 2 points from the game.

Unluckily for them however, when Lloyd Hayes broke through at the death to seal the fourth try, referee Jamie Parr blew to bring play back, as he explained he had got in the way.

Reflecting after the game Harvey Biljon said:

“It was helluva game, you could see the desperation in the Rams team and how energised they were for the game and give them credit, they came out and played.

“For us I think it was a game of moments because we scored three great tries, but we also left three or four tries out there that would have also been brilliant scores.

Sometimes you are just struggling to get those over the line and for whatever reasons today we just didn’t get the bounce of the ball.

“There were two opportunities before half time in which one of them we were held up and then with 20 minutes of the game to go we had another two outstanding opportunities. If we get those scores we’re probably looking at a different outcome.

“The underlying point however is Rams deserved their win on the day and it gives us opportunity to go away and look at some areas of the game where we can get better and as a team we need to adapt to what’s going on out on the field.”

Titans: Gordon (T), Tanumi (T), Du Randt (T), Hayes (2C)

Rams: Clow (T), Hayman (T), Hodgson (T), Boxhall (T), Honey (2C, 2P)

Yellow Card: Gilson-Fox (Titans)

Attendance: 803

Referee: Jamie Parr

Assistant Referees: Henry Lowis & Ben McNamara

Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Ronnie Du Randt, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue (Tanumi 52), 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps © (Toerien 52), 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Andrew Foster (Logavatu 74), 4 Zak Poole © (Kivalu 64), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Travis Gordon, 8 Callum Bustin (Maguire 38).

Replacements: 29 Loma Kivalu 17 Zach Toerien, 19 Joji Logavatu, 27 Curran Maguire, 20 Tomasi Tanumi.

Rams: 15 Zach Clow, 14 Jack Rampton, 13 Solodrau Radianirova, 12 Joe Pannese, 11 Axel Kalling-Smith, 10 Fraser Honey, 9 Ollie Hodgson (Boxhall 41), 1 Scott Kirk (Harris 48), 2 Max Hayman ©, 3 James Baker (Barry 74), 4 Nile Dacres, 5 Robbie Stapley (Duda 59), 6 Harry Stone, 7 Ben Atkins, 8 James McRae.

Replacements: 16 Nick Barry, 17 Patrick Harris, 18 Mikey Duda, 19 Andrew Lamb, 20 Sam Boxhall.