Round 21 of National 1 this weekend sees Rotherham Titans take on what many pundits believe to be the toughest test in the division, when they travel to Devon to take on Plymouth Albion at Brickfields Stadium; kick-off on Saturday is 3pm.
Rotherham will go into the game on the back of a brutal battle with Birmingham Mosely at Clifton Lane, in which the South Yorkshire side squeeze out a narrow 28-27 victory.
Although in the latter stages Titans had the upper hand, they were unable to convert that pressure into a fourth try and a bonus point.
Nevertheless, the victory itself was an outstanding result against a much-improved Moseley side who pushed Rotherham all the way to the final whistle.
This week Titans face another old rival in Plymouth Albion, and Albion will be full of confidence having strung together an impressive run of results that has seen them win nine on the trot.
Notable results for the South Devon side have included wins home and away against Bishop’s Stortford, Leicester Lions, Blackheath and Birmingham Moseley; but the real eye-catching result was last time out when they went to Rams and beat them convincingly 47-33 at Old Bath Road.
Indeed, the last time Albion lost a game was back in November 2024 when they suffered a narrow 33-29 loss away to Rosslyn Park.
Brickfields has always been a challenging place to go and get a result and you have to go back to 2013 to find Rotherham’s last win there.
That came in a Championship clash where tries from Jack Roberts, Jack Preece and Michael Keating and points from the tee from Juan Pablo Socino and Joel Hodgson helped the Titans to a 28-17 win.
The sides have met in the league on 31 occasions with the head-to-head standing at 17 wins for Rotherham, 13 for Albion and one draw. Most of these clashes have been extremely close and keenly fought affairs and something similar is expected this weekend.
Going into the match Rotherham have made four changes to their starting XV.
In the front row hooker Morgan Veness returns to the side for Loma Kivalu and he’ll be flanked by props Zach Toerien who comes in for Charlie Capps at loosehead and Eoin Harrison who comes in for Andrew Foster at tighthead.
The second row is unaltered and sees Harry Gilson-Fox partner skipper Zak Poole.
The back row also stays the same with Travis Gordon on the blindside, Harry Newborn on the openside and Callum Bustin at number 8.
Across the backline is the same consistency in the half backs as scrum half JB Bruzulier accompanies fly half Rob Povey.
The midfield remains the same too, as it has done for much of the season, and Lloyd Hayes and Jamie Cooke will link up again.
The back three sees Jack Townend come into the side at full back, meaning Ronnie Du Randt goes on to the wing for Calum Barrett, with Tomasi Tanumi on the other wing.
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Zach Toerien, 2 Morgan Veness, 3 Eoin Harrison, 4 Zak Poole ©, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 Travis Gordon, 7 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 John Okafor, 17 Charlie Capps ©, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Curran Maguire, 20 James Naylor.
