Plymouth Albion 22 Titans 21

Rotherham Titans suffered late heartbreak as Plymouth Albion scored an injury time penalty to snatch a 22-21 win on a heavy pitch at Brickfields.

Titans outscored Albion by three tries to one and had they been able to hold on, it would have been a worthy victory for a side that gave everything against all the odds.

For a variety of reasons getting a win away to Plymouth is always a challenge, but Rotherham came as close as any side has done this season.

Even after Albion had taken an injury time lead Rotherham thought they had earned an opportunity to win the game, when referee Dan Rowlands awarded them a kickable penalty, only to change his decision and reverse the penalty for Albion.

Nevertheless, Rotherham can be proud of their efforts under difficult circumstances and with Rosslyn Park suffering a surprise loss to Bishop’s Stortford the South Yorkshire side remain top of the pile.

The game itself was played with good intensity and although Albion scored an early penalty through Iwan Jenkins, Rotherham stormed into the lead with a fine try.

JB Bruzulier collected the ball around halfway and proceeded to make great headway up the blindside before finding winger Jackson Barling, he showed good strength to power over for a converted try.

Titans followed up their success shortly after when a lovey cross-field kick from Lloyd Hayes was superbly taken by Isaac Shaw who went over for a superb converted try to extend his side’s lead. 

Albion tried their best to penetrate the Rotherham defence in an attempt to narrow the deficit.

Unfortunately for them they were unable to cross the whitewash, but they did add two further penalties from Jenkins to trail 14-9 at the break.

Jenkins popped over another 3-pointer just before the hour mark and then Titans suffered more misery when Isaac Shaw was yellow carded for a deliberate knock on inside his own 22.

Whilst reduced in numbers Rotherham finally conceded a try when winger Shea Cornish ran in under the sticks.

Shortly after an Albion player was also adjudged to have made a deliberate knock on inside his 22, but this time a penalty was ruled as sufficient punishment.

Nevertheless, Titans stuck to their task and retook the lead 8 minutes from time when hooker Morgan Veness scored a converted try from the back of a powerful driving maul.

Unfortunately for the Yorkshiremen they just couldn’t hold on as Jenkins slotted his fifth penalty of the game to clinch it for the Devonians.

Commenting after the match Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“I am immensely proud of the effort our players put in right through to the end.

“It was a tough day at the office from a point of view of missed moments. 

“And some of those we have to look at ourselves to make sure when you play a top-end game you can overcome those.

“We have to look at the discipline, I thought the balance across some of those were tough, but I think we’ve got to learn that away from home not everything always goes your way.

“I think you could see how much it meant to Plymouth today, they had to dig deep and credit to them for doing that.

“We also had one or two moments where we could have taken it ourselves, but we look forward to the return fixture.”

Titans: Barling (T), Shaw (T), Veness (T), Hayes (3C)

Plymouth Albion: Cornish (T), Jenkins (5P, 1C)

Yellow Card: Shaw (Titans)

Referee: Dan Rowlands

Assistant Referees: Nick Marshall & Emmerson Wood

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Sinjin Broad, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 68),  2 Luke Cole (Veness 47), 3 Xavier Valentine (Foster 40), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Maguire 47) (Cole 79), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Ellis Thomas (Baldry 76).

Replacements: 16 Morgan Veness, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Jack Baldry, 20 Curran Maguire.

Plymouth Albion: 15 Frankie Dart, 14 Shae Cornish, 13 Oscar Stewart, 12 Archie Hill, 11 Robert Wiggington, 10 Iwan Jenkins, 9 Jack Oulton ©, 1 Jenson Boughton, 2 Rhys Williams, 3 Dan Pullinger, 4 Freddie Stevenson, 5 Joel Broadhurst, 6 Jake Clemson 7 Jago Sheppard, 8 Angus Hodges.

Replacements: 16 Gabe Mead, 17 Liam Bishop, 18 Ben Moa, 19 Ben Raivalitia, 20 Harry Legg.

Titans 24 Blackheath 19

Rotherham Titans came out on top in a massively physical contest to beat Blackheath 24-19 on a wet afternoon at Clifton Lane.

The sides shared 6 tries with Titans 3 scores coming from JB Bruzulier, Sinjin Broad and a penalty try, with Lloyd Hayes adding 7 points from the tee on a difficult afternoon for kicking in drenched conditions.

It was never going to be a high scoring affair, and we had to wait until the 14th minute before the visitor’s livewire scrum half, Jordan Burns, collected and raced around the Rotherham defence to go in near the corner for an unconverted try.

Titans didn’t take long to react, and they nosed themselves ahead a couple of minutes later when their own scrum half, JB Bruzulier, got in the thick of the forwards action to come up with a try, which Lloyd Hayes converted; the latter then stretched the advantage ten minutes later with a penalty.

Blackheath are not considered a top side without good reason, and they proved that when before the half hour mark, they retook the lead when hooker Billy Harding dotted down from the tail of a driving maul.

The final ten minutes of the half saw Rotherham step on the gas and enjoy a purple patch as firstly Sinjin Broad went over in the corner following good work in the build up from Mitchell Lacey-Babalola and Jackson Barling.

Then the Titans were awarded a penalty try after a long looping pass from JB Bruzulier looked to send in Jackson Barling on the wing. However, a deliberate knock-on from Blackheath winger Alex Earnshaw prevented the score for which he received a 10-minute rest.

With Rotherham now in full control and with the momentum in their favour the South Yorkshire outfit looked to wrap up the bonus point before half time.

Following a series of scrums and penalties on the Blackheath line this looked inevitable; unfortunately for them they were penalised on their own scrum, and the opportunity was lost, but they still however went in at the break with a worthy 24-12 lead.

The second period proved to be as equally as competitive as both sides battered each other in an attempt to gain the ascendancy.

Just after the restart Hayes missed a difficult penalty opportunity for what would have opened a 15-point advantage, but no blame could be attached to any kicker in these challenging underfoot conditions.

Blackheath narrowed the deficit to just five points before the hour mark when hooker Billy Harding popped up again to finish off another driving maul.

With plenty of time remaining the game was up for grabs and both sides did their very best to wrestle the advantage.

Titans came close to stretching the lead to a crucial 8-points inside the final ten minutes with a penalty kick, but this was narrowly missed.

With the nerves jangling at the death there was a huge sigh of relief on full time as the Titans held on for a tough, but well-deserved win in tricky conditions against a very good side.

Titans will now rest a few bruised bodies before quickly turning their attention to next week’s challenge against Plymouth Albion.

Speaking after the game Rotherham’s Harvey Biljon reflected:

“Today I’ve got to credit our players on the discipline with pretty big, long defensive sets. In the second half we were under pressure at line out, we were under pressure at set-piece, and we had to find another way.

“When you talk about character, effort, but also being composed and understanding the situation, that was a big moment of maturity for the group.

“On days like today you’re never going to get away from opposition and it’s always going to come down to that one score.

“In these conditions not everything is going to go right every time, but I am immensely proud of how far they have come today because that Blackheath team came with everything.”

Titans: JB Bruzulier (T), Broad (T), Penalty Try, Hayes (2C, P)

Blackheath: Harding (2T), Burns (T), Hennessey (1C), Dalrymple (1C)

Yellow Card: Earnshaw (Blackheath)

Referee: Ben Simpson

Assistant Referees: Adam Carpenter & Ian Farrell

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 12 Travis Gordon (Capt.), 11 Sinjin Broad, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 54), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 67), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 74), 4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 Cory Teague (Maguire 67), 6 John Okafor, 7 Jack Baldry, 8 Ellis Thomas.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Curran Maguire, 20 Corben Ollivent.

Blackheath: 15 Jake Hennessey, 14 Jake Lloyd, 13 Luke Pollock, 12 Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas, 11 Alex Earnshaw (McGhie 44), 10 Ed Dunford (Dalrymple 40), 9 Jordan Burns (Sloot 74), 1 Archie Holland (Cornish 67), 2 Billy Harding (Capt.), 3 Andrew Boye, 4 Finley O’Sullivan, 5 Ed Scragg, 6 Archie Smeaton (Jameson 44), 7 Noah Sloot (Bourne 67), 8 Finn Osborne.

Replacements: 16 Archie Bourne, 17 James Cornish, 18 William Jameson, 19 Kyle McGhie, 20 Matt Dalrymple.

Birmingham Moseley 15 Titans 33

Rotherham Titans had to battle hard for their well-deserved 33-15 win over Birmingham Moseley on a bright afternoon at Billesley Common.

Titans outscored the hosts by three tries to two with scores from Luckas Sableman-Blue, Ellis Thomas and Lloyd Hayes, with the latter also adding 18 points from the tee.

The win, Titans eighth in nine outings, keeps them second in the league and well in the mix at the top, just two points behind leaders Rosslyn Park.

The game was keenly contested throughout but it was Rotherham who enjoyed the lion’s share of territory and possession.

However, it took the visitors until the 17th minute before they turned pressure into points, when Lloyd Hayes knocked over a penalty.

Hayes quickly added to the score moments later when he eyed a gap in the Moseley defence to squeeze through to score, before dusting himself down to add the extras.

Enjoying the limelight Hayes added to his personal tally just after the half hour mark with his second penalty, after more Titans pressure reaped its rewards.

However, in the final play of the half Moseley got on the board when winger Sam Clarke scurried over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Following the break, in a slightly more even half, Moseley opened the scoring when Tighe Maxwell-Whiteley slotted over a 3-pointer.

The sides then traded scores when firstly Titans wing Luckas Sableman-Blue finished off after receiving a nice pass from Travis Gordon, before Mose second rower Fin Smith darted over shortly after, to keep the home sides deficit to just 5 points.

However, two more penalties from the reliable boot of Hayes soon relieved the pressure as he extended Titans advantage to 11 points.

The icing on the cake was applied for Rotherham late on when powerful number 8 Ellis Thomas bulldozed his way over.

Titans were unable to collect the try bonus point in the time remaining, but any win at Billesley Common is considered a tremendous result.

Titans will now make sure they prepare accordingly for the visit of Blackheath to Clifton Lane on Saturday.

Speaking afterwards Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“That was one hell of a game, it looked like a top end National 1 game.

“For whatever reason Birmingham Moseley haven’t started the season as well as they would have hoped, but they showed today they’re going to push a lot of teams throughout the season. They were organised and kept going right up until the end.

“Our players stepped up to the heavy physical battle that Birmingham Moseley offered; we showed a fair bit of composure and control, yet we still come away with a feeling like did we miss one or two opportunities?

“Now, I’m immensely proud of that performance, we looked organised and controlled, but we just need to make sure we can close out those one or two opportunities.

“I was impressed with the team’s discipline, which makes a big difference; our control of the pitch and our defensive sets inside our 22.”

Titans: Sableman-Blue (T), Thomas (T), Hayes (T, 4P, 3C)

Birmingham Moseley: Clarke (T), F. Smith (T), Maxwell-Whiteley (1P, 1C)

Yellow Card: Safe (Moseley)

Attendance: 782

Referee: Jack Moorhouse

Assistant Referees: Ian Farrell & Matt Daubney

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling (Broad 75), 13 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 Sinjin Broad (Metcalfe 57), 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 67), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 67), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 55), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Teague 55), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Ellis Thomas.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Cory Teague, 20 Will Metcalfe.

Birmingham Moseley: 15 Perry Humphreys (Jones 79), 14 Sam Clarke, 13 Elliott Creed, 12 Harry Jones (Taylor 55), 11 Aquile Smith, 10 Tighe Maxwell-Whiteley, 9 Harry Gipson (Jolly 55), 1 Ethan Priest (Ma’a 41), 2 Ben Pogson (McNulty 34), 3 David Langley (Priest 57), 4 Harry Butler, 5 Fin Smith (Mifsud 78), 6 Louis Mifsud (Edwards 51), 7 Morgan Dawes, 8 Will Safe (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Sam McNulty, 17 Fred Ma’a, 18 Santiago Edwards, 19 Jack Jolly, 20 Tommy Taylor.

Titans 38 Tonbridge Juddians 28

Rotherham Titans mounted a stirring second half comeback to beat a spirited Tonbridge Juddians 38-28 on a windy afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans trailed 21-12 at the break against a lively Juddians outfit, but Rotherham’s power eventually took its toll as they overran the visitors 26-7 in the second half.

In this high scoring National 1 thriller the home side ran in 6 tries with a brace each for Jackson Barling and John Okafor, with Morgan Veness and Isaac Shaw also going over; Corben Ollivent added 8 points from the tee.

Rotherham had lots of possession and territory throughout the game, but several mistakes led to the visitors clinically punishing them with tries.

Indeed, the visitors were alert enough after just 6 minutes to pounced on a loose ball that saw flanker Archie White charged in for a try, converted by Connor Lloyd.

Titans worked their way back in and took the lead following a catch and drive try from hooker Morgan Veness and a dart over from Jackson Barling after the ball was spread nicely across the park, the latter was converted by Corben Ollivent.

Unfortunately for the Titans two more errors before the break cost them dearly as an intercept was punished by scrum half Connor Lloyd and a brief lapse in concentration was exploited and finished off by Tom Nicoll to send the visitors in at the break with a healthy advantage.

One thing this group of Rotherham players has repeatedly displayed is a huge amount of character and desire to get a result, especially when things don’t always go to plan - and this they did again.

Just two minutes after the restart Titans reduced their deficit when John Okafor charged down a clearance kick and then maintained his cool to collect and theatrically dive over for an important score.

Despite Tonbridge grabbing their second intercept try of the game through flying winger Curtis Barnes to extend their advantage to 28-17, you just felt Rotherham were starting to dominate again.

And that’s how it played out as the South Yorkshire side scored three converted tries in an 8-minute scintillating spell of rugby.

First up Jackson Barling grabbed his second try when receiving the ball close to the line before bludgeoning his way over.

Then full back Isaac Shaw raced through for a lovely score near the sticks after receiving a neat pass from Travis Gordon.

Finally, to end the scoring big John Okafor was on hand to receive a nice pass from Isaac Shaw before proceeding to gallop home to effectively seal the game.

Following this first block of 8 games Rotherham now have a week off to hopefully mend a few bruised bodies and come back fresh for the visit to Birmingham Mosely next month.

Speaking after the game Harvey Biljon reflected:

“I am immensely proud of the group; we’ve had a tough 8 weeks, there’s been numerous changes through selection during that period and as a whole squad and a group everyone that’s come in has been able to contribute.

“We gave them three scores in the first half and most of the time you can’t work your way back into a game. But what I thought was impressive was we stuck to task, we took on the half time messages, and I think that is the main reason why we came through in that second half.

“It’s really great to start and see young players come through and they have to be in those positions in order to grow, improve and get better.

“So, when we are playing again in a couple of weeks’ time and there will be other scenarios that are going to put them under pressure, at least they’ve worked their way through it and they’ve seen how by doing that they can get the reward.”

Titans: Barling (2T), Okafor (2T), Veness (T), Shaw (T), Ollivent (4C)

Tonbridge Juddians: White (T), Nicoll (T), Barnes (T), Lloyd (1T, 4C)

Yellow Card: None

Referee: Ben Rayner

Assistant Referees: Jack Moorhouse & Jason Garrick

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Kieran O’Meara (Metcalfe 66), 10 Corben Ollivent, 9 Sinjin Broad, 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 61), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 62), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 61), 4 Curran Maguire (Baldry 55), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Ellis Thomas.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Jack Baldry, 20 Will Metcalfe. 

Tonbridge Juddians: 15 Oscar Yandall, 14 Tom Kendrick, 13 Shadyn Osgood, 12 Lewis Gjaltema (cc), 11 Curtis Barnes, 10 Sam Evans (Mannix 61), 9 Connor Lloyd, 1 Luke Boon (Wheeler 67), 2 Will Holling (Pybus 74), 3 Bobby Bratton, 4 George Merrick (Scopes 29) (Merrick70), 5 Isaac Ridge, 6 Archie White, 7 Tom Nicoll (cc) (Everitt 49), 8 Oscar Waite.

Replacements: 16 Alex Pybus, 17 Max Wheeler, 18 Alfie Scopes, 19 Vince Everitt, 20 Tom Mannix.  

Photo: Gareth Siddons

Dings 50 Titans 31

Rotherham Titans suffered their first loss of the season with a heavy 50-31 defeat away to Bristol based side Dings Crusaders, on a breezy afternoon at Shaftesbury Park.

Titans collected a try bonus point for their efforts with their five scores coming from Isaac Shaw, Jackson Barling, Morgan Veness Harry Newborn and Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, with Lloyd Hayes adding 6 points from the tee.

The defeat sees Rotherham drop to second in the table one point behind leaders Rosslyn Park on an afternoon where there was a number of surprising results in the division.

Dings fully deserved their victory as they matched Rotherham in all areas throughout the game.

The hosts made a rapid start and raced into a 19-0 lead inside the opening 15 minutes as Thompson, Stanley and knight all crossed the whitewash.

Rotherham responded through full back Isaac Shaw who burst through to give the league leaders hope of stabilising the ship.

However, Dings chose to write their own script and before the break added two further scores through Morris and Rowson to send the hosts in at the break with a huge 31-5 lead.

It was always going to be tough for Rotherham to overturn such a deficit and despite winning the second half, that’s how it turned out.

A Jackson Barling try early in the second half may have given the visitors hope of an unlikely comeback, but that was quickly snuffed out when Dings winger Rowson grabbed his second try shortly afterwards.

The final 20 minutes saw the sides trade scores as Morris and Jenkins crossed for the hosts and to their credit for never giving up Rotherham added three more from Veness, Newborn and Lacey-Babalola.

The South Yorkshire side will now reset, work hard and prepare for the challenge that Tonbridge Juddians will bring to Clifton Lane next Saturday.

Commenting post-match Harvey Biljon reflected:

“First of all, we have to give credit to Dings Crusaders, they clearly had a reaction from their result last weekend, they had a nice little injection of players come in for them, which clearly made a big difference, and at times they out enthused us in moments.

“We can’t get away from that, we’ve had a big couple of weeks and for maybe 50 minutes we were off the pace, and you have to give them credit, they got some great scores, as did we.

“We scored 31 points on the day and when you do that you don’t expect that outcome, but we’ve got to work both sides and today took us a little while to get up to speed.

“There was two or three moments in the first half where we didn’t convert and because we didn’t convert, we were under pressure and in those moments, we’ve got to be better.

“That’s the great thing about this game, as I’ve just said to the players in the huddle, we get to train Tuesday and Thursday and we get another go next week.”

Titans: Shaw (T), Barling (T), Veness (T), Newborn (T), Lacey-Babalola (T), Hayes (3C)

Dings Crusaders: Morris (2T), Rowson (2T), Thompson (T), Stanley (T), Knight (T), Jenkins (T), O’Grady (5C)

Yellow Card: Halliwell (Dings)

Attendance: 531

Referee: Alex Powdrell

Assistant Referees: Emmerson Wood & Dave Philpot

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Joe Cummins, 9 Noah Cowan (Broad 54), 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 49), 2 Luke Cole (Veness 59), 3 Andrew Foster (Bairstow 59), 4 Curran Maguire, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox (Cole 89), 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Fraser Hastie (Gascoigne 54).

Replacements: 16 Morgan Veness, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Tom Bairstow, 19 Frankie Gascoigne, 20 Sinjin Broad.

Dings Crusaders: 15 Evan Morris (Sol Taufa72), 14 Harry Rowson, 13 Victor Worsnip, 12 George Boulton (Capt.), 11 Sol Taufa (Rivers 70) (Morris78), 10 Lewis O’Grady, 9 Tom Knight (Jones70), 1 Archie Stanley, 2 Tomos Gwilliam (Cantwell 69), 3 Jimmy Halliwell (Ncube71), 4 Will Thompson, 5 Matt Bowler, 6 Kenzie Jenkins, 7 Kofi Cripps, 8 Paddy Pearce (Bilton 69).

Replacements: 16 Sam Cantwell, 17 Brian Ncube, 18 Alex Bilton, 19 Matt Jones, 20 Max Rivers.

Titans 27 Rosslyn Park 26

Rotherham Titans retained their position at the top of the league with the narrowest of victories over a dangerous Rosslyn Park side 27-26 on a sunny afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans claimed the try bonus point with scores from Jackson Barling, Morgan Veness, Harry Newborn and Travis Gordon, with Lloyd Hayes, who was making his 150th appearance for the club, adding seven points from the tee.

This top-of-the-table clash was expected to be a tight affair and that’s just how it played out, as each side gave their all in a physical battle between two top sides.

Titans victory was built on a solid pack performance which allowed the home side to enjoy large periods of possession and territory.

However, credit to Rosslyn Park must be given for their determination in defence which repeatedly throughout the game repelled the Titans when a score looked imminent.

Indeed, it took Rotherham 22 minutes to break the deadlock, after dominating the game up to that point, when winger Jackson Barling showed good strength to power over in the corner for an unconverted try.

To Rotherham’s disappointment, Park quickly went ahead when full back Luke Mehson skipped through to score on the visitors first real foray into the Titans half.

Nevertheless, Rotherham remained undeterred and continued to have the better of things, as the possession stats will no doubt show.

Five minutes before the break the pressure told again on Park and this time hooker Morgan Veness scored a pack try following a powerful drive.

But again, Rosslyn Park bounced back, this time after just 2 minutes and what a belter it was. The visitor’s backline worked the ball at pace and made quick yards downfield, before sending in back rower Arthur Ellis to score under the posts.

If Rotherham were disappointed, they didn’t show it and they made sure of going in at the break ahead when skipper Harry Newborn crashed over in the corner in the final play of the half to make it 17-14.

The intensity from both sides increased even higher in the second half, but it was Rotherham who scored next when centre Travis Gordon showed good footwork to burst clear and race through for his side’s bonus point try. Hayes’ conversion stretched the homes sides advantage to ten points.

Whilst Rotherham continued to have the lions share of the ball, Rosslyn Park were always dangerous with ball in hand, and it probably wasn’t a surprise when scrum half Ewan Fenley darted through to score a converted try.

As the running clock went past the 80-minute mark Rotherham were awarded a penalty 40-metres from goal. Up stepped the reliable boot of Lloyd Hayes to knock over the 3-pointer.

There was always a possibility of a sting in the tail and that came in the shape of Rosslyn Park’s Ewan Fenley. The livewire scrum half was on hand following a breakaway to run around the defence to score near the corner and reduce Park’s deficit to one point, with the conversion to come.

The conversion was close to the far touchline and not at all an easy kick. Unfortunately for Steff James his effort narrowly missed the target and although the game did restart it finished moments later to the raucous cheer of the home crowd.

Whilst Rotherham fully deserved their win, massive credit goes to Rosslyn Park who played their part in this high-class National 1 thriller.

Reflecting after this pulsating encounter Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“That is what top-of-the table clashes are all about, both teams went deep into the game and any neutral here today would have see an unbelievable game of rugby.

“I one hundred percent believe we deserved that victory; our territorial possession both in the first half and for parts of the second half was probably the difference which allowed us to take the result.

“I am greedy though and I want us to be better; there were moments in the game I felt we could have taken our opportunities, and we need to stay composed in those moments.

“We were well aware that Rosslyn Park have X-Factor players that can give you X-Factor moments and that’s why they’re always in the game right up until the end. They came away with points, and they deserved those points.

“We have to make sure we don’t plateau and that we keep building on our performances.

“We probably had our toughest training session of the season on Tuesday and it’s testament to the players that no one hesitated around what we asked of them and they wanted to put themselves in the best place they could going into this game.

“They’ve worked hard and today they got their reward.”

Titans: Barling (T), Veness (T), Newborn (T), Gordon (T), Hayes (2C, 1P)

Rosslyn Park: Fenley (2T), Mehson (T), Ellis (T), James (3C)

Yellow Card: None

Attendance: 250

Referee: Ben Rayner

Assistant Referees: George Ounsley & Simon Park

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey (Broad 45), 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Zach Toerien (Mitchell 68), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 68), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 55), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Maguire 45), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Ellis Thomas.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Calvin Mitchell, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Curran Maguire, 20 Sinjin Broad.

Rosslyn Park: 15 Luke Mehson, 14 Charlie Walker, 13 Tom Stanton (Volley 65), 12 Sam Kennaugh, 11 Benji Marfo, 10 Steff James, 9 Ewan Fenley, 1 Mo Nwakor (Wade 17), 2 Charlie Piper, 3 Matt Woodward (Nwakor 63), 4 Jake Cleet, 5 Jordan Martin, 6 Henry Spencer, 7 Arthur Ellis (Capt.), 8 Harry Ledger.

Replacements: 16 Max Fraine, 17 Ali Wade, 18 Connor Kennison-Cook, 19 Freddie Roddick, 20 Ed Volley.

Leicester Lions 25 Titans 41

Rotherham Titans continued their fine start to the season with a hard-earned 41-25 win over Leicester Lions, on a gusty afternoon at Westleigh Park.

Titans outscored the hosts by 7 tries to 3 as James Norman and Sinjin Broad helped themselves to a brace, with Harry Newborn, Morgan Veness and Jackson Barling chipping in with one each; Lloyd Hayes added 6 points from the tee.

The win keeps Rotherham at the of the table on the same points as Rosslyn Park, who are Titans next opposition at Clifton Lane on Saturday.

The game turned out to be as challenging as expected for Rotherham, with the hosts offering plenty both in the forwards and backs and with the conditions as such, it was never going to be a straightforward day at the office.

Nevertheless, it was Rotherham who got the scoreboard moving first when winger James Norman finished off in the corner after the ball was shifted the full width of the pitch. Lloyd Hayes attempt with the extras was unsuccessful as the wind hindered his effort.

Soon after however the hosts took the lead when openside flanker Cam De Beer burst through for a try which was converted off the right-hand post by Luke Bouchier, who shortly after extended his sides lead with a penalty.

Unflustered by this Rotherham started to settle as they exerted control over proceedings, which in turn led them to adding two further tries.

The first of which saw James Norman go over in the corner for his second of the game following nice work in the build-up from John Okafor; whilst the next came from scrum half Sinjin Broad who had to work hard in the contact area to score next to the posts, with Hayes’ conversion making it 17-10.

If anyone at this point thought the floodgates might open for Rotherham, they would have been sorely mistaken, as a converted try from winger Joey Patrick and a penalty kick from Bouchier saw the hosts go in at the break with a 20-17 lead.

The opening 15 minutes of the second half saw Titans set up camp in the Lions half, but fair play to the hosts, their determination in defence was outstanding and the visitors were unable to add to their tally at this stage.

Eventually however the pressure had to tell - and it did!

Just before the hour mark Lions had a scrum five metres from their own line, but a massive effort from the Titans pack pushed them off the ball and with scrum half Sinjin Broad on hand, he was able to pick up the pieces before diving over for the bonus point try. Hayes tagged on the extras to nose his side 24-20 ahead.

Frustratingly for Rotherham, after all the time it had taken them to score their try, within 2 minutes Leicester went back in front when replacement front row forward Bronson Mellowes crashed over for an unconverted try.

Twelve minutes from time in this pulsating, seesaw encounter Rotherham went back ahead when skipper Harry Newborn went over following excellent work down the left-hand side from Mitchell Lacey-Babalola.

Titans virtually sealed the game shortly after when hooker Morgan Veness finished off for a converted try, after more powerful work from the Titans pack.

Late on Lions looked to have secured a try bonus point when winger Joey Patrick crossed the line, however, before he could score Travis Gordon knocked the ball out of his hand.

And to add to the home sides misery, at the death winger Jackson Barling charged down the right-hand side to score Titans seventh try of the match.

So, whilst Rotherham fully deserved their win, the hosts can rightfully feel disappointed that their efforts yielded no points from a highly competitive game.

Speaking afterwards Titans Harvey Biljon reflected:

“We came up against a Leicester Lions team that was clearly very emotionally charged and you have to give them credit around their maul defence which was very good today and they stuck in every single battle.

“They’ve clearly taken a fair bit of confidence from going away to Plymouth and coming away with a point and scoring four tries and today, as we saw, they made us defend until the 86th minute as they kept on looking for that point.

“I was pleased with the way we adapted and turned it around in the second half. We knew they were not going to go away, but we controlled territory until we could take our opportunities.

“We have to give credit in tough conditions to our set piece and that eventually created those of opportunities both up front and in the backs.

“We had to make a few changes going into the game and it played out well. Tom Bairstow got his first start and he got 79 minutes; how good is that for the young man and James Norman got two tries before he had to go off injured in the first half.

“When we were on it we looked good, but for us today we were either on it or off it, whereas a week ago we were on every moment.

“However, let’s not take anything away from ourselves, it was windy, the ball was greasy, and the opposition were charged, but we can make improvements on that today.”

Titans: Norman (2T), Broad (2T), Newborn (T), Veness (T), Barling (T), Hayes (3C)

Leicester Lions: De Beer (T), Patrick (T), Mellowes (T), Bouchier (2C, 2P)

Yellow Card: Cowan (Titans)

Attendance: 227

Referee: Sam Yates

Assistant Referees: Jason Garrick & Leo Burton

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 James Norman (Lacey-Babalola 29), 10 Rob Povey (Veness 77), 9 Sinjin Broad (Cowan 64), 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 70), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 76), 3 Tom Bairstow (Mitchell 74), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Broad 71), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Curran Maguire, 8 Harry Newborn (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Calvin Mitchell, 19 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 20 Noah Cowan.

Leicester Lions: 15 Theo Mannion, 14 Jake Sterland (Stubbs65), 13 Lui Natui, 12 Fred St John, 11 Joey Patrick, 10 Luke Bouchier, 9 James Stubbs (Ogden 55), 1 Will Roberts (Mellowes 54), 2 Ben Park, 3 Aaron Dawson (Crane 54), 4 Joey Britton (Bryan 40), 5 Ethan Godefroy (Capt.), 6 Monty Loggenberg (Smith 55), 7 Cam De Beer (Loggenberg 61), 8 George Marsh.

Replacements: 16 Bronson Mellowes, 17 Oliver Crane, 18 Ed Bryan, 19 Will Smith, 20 Fin Ogden.

Titans 71 Bishop's Stortford 12

Rotherham Titans rampaged their way to an eleven try 71-12 victory over an enthusiastic Bishop’s Stortford side on a cool afternoon at Clifton Lane.

The victory, Titans fourth bonus point win on the trot, maintains their perfect stat to the season and keeps them at the business end of the table.

Rotherham’s scores came via braces from JB Bruzulier, Jackson Barling, Mitchell Lacey-Babalola and Callum Bustin, with one each for Travis Gordon, Morgan Veness and Lloyd Hayes, the latter also added 16 points from the tee.

An exciting performance from the home side was built on strong foundations laid down by their pack, but it was flourishing moves from their backs that kept the scoreboard relentlessly ticking over.

Titans galloped out of the blocks to shock Stortford, racing into a 28-0 lead inside the opening half hour to secure the bonus point.

JB Bruzulier started things of as he sniped over from close range before Jackson Barling raced in for a bullish score. Travis Gordon showed good intensity and desire to drive over for the next before Mitchell Lacey-Babalola streaked home for the try-bonus.

Stortford’s hopes may have been lifted when scrum half Chris Bolton darted over just before the break, but Titans bounced back through JB Bruzulier in injury time to quickly subdue them again.

If the first half had been pretty much all Rotherham, the second period was even more one sided as the hosts added a further 6 tries, four of which came inside the opening 15 minutes.

Lloyd Hayes danced his way through the defence for the first, Callum Bustin bulldozed over as usual for the next, before hooker Morgan Veness finished off a catch and drive and Jackson Barling showed good pace for his second.

A shellshocked Bishop’s to their credit continued to put in a shift, but all to no avail as a further two tries followed with Mitchell Lacey-Babalola grabbing his second and Callum Bustin equalling Rotherham’s all time second on the list try scorer, John Dudley, as he powered over for his 50th Titans score.

Bishop’s went in search of a consolation and this came late on when winger Jake Morris sneaked over in the corner.

Nevertheless, that didn’t take the shine off what was an excellent performance from the South Yorkshire side.

Reflecting after the match Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“I was impressed with our players with the way they set out the whole week. Our performance on a Saturday comes from our preparation during the week with how our squad comes together to prepare the team.

“We knew coming into the game Bishop’s was a team that had beaten Birmingham Moseley, run Blackheath close and pushed Plymouth Albion and we knew they had ability and I think our players were up for that challenge.

“One of the things that stood out was we stuck at it for 80 minutes; we didn’t go through those patches of maybe losing our concentration and that came through right at the end where we were defending on our line although the game was over.

“I was impressed with the attitude of the players, and they worked hard. I think we are finding that balance where we share that responsibility in attack, but we were lucky today because we had a day where we could go out and play.

“We set the tone up front, but we have to make sure we put the ball in front of the pack and the backs are playing their part in that.

“It’s not perfect yet, we have a game plan depending on who we are playing, but I think we got the balance right today.”

Titans: Bruzulier (2T), Barling (2T), Lacey-Babalola (2T), Bustin (2T), Gordon (T), Veness (T), Hayes (T, 8C)

Bishop’s Stortford: Morris (T), Bolton (T, C)

Yellow Card: None

Attendance: 250

Referee: Ben Rayner

Assistant Referees: Simon Williams & Jason Garrick

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Broad 44), 1 Alastair Donkor (Mitchell 48), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 51), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 48), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Newborn 58), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.) (Thomas 51), 8 Callum Bustin.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Calvin Mitchell, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Ellis Thomas, 20 Sinjin Broad.

Bishop’s Stortford: 15 David Hayes, 14 Tom Mills, 13 Aman Johal (Cole 22), 12 Austin Pope, 11 Jake Morris, 10 Finn Keylock, 9 Chris Bolton (Stuart-Harris 49), 1 Tristan Smith (Peck 67), 2 Harry Clarke (Bell 49), 3 Henry Peck (Meechan 31), 4 Fraizer Kiff, 5 Ollie Jones, 6 James Rhydderch-Roberts, 7 Alex Rayment, 8 Will Rogers (Capt.) (Ducci 56).

Replacements: 16 Isaac Bell, 17 Cameron Meechan, 18 Damien Ducci, 19 Dan Cole, 20 Asa Stuart-Harris.

Clifton 15 Titans 40

Rotherham Titans maintained their perfect start to the season with a powerful 40-15 win over a committed Clifton outfit on a wet afternoon at Station Road.

Titans bonus point win, their third of the season, was built on solid pack foundations combined with the ability of their backs to finish off opportunities.

A keenly fought first half saw Titans hooker Morgan Veness open the scoring after being driven over by his pack, with centre Lloyd Hayes landing the first of four conversions.

The hosts too enjoyed their moments and they were rewarded when back rower Jay Evans barged his way over for an unconverted score.

As half time approached Rotherham’s frustrations were somewhat lifted when Jackson Barling finished off in the corner after play was spread the width of the field.

The second half saw Titans burst out of the blocks to extend their advantage when Isaac Shaw danced his way over for a fine score, before adding a second shortly after to secure the bonus point and effectively seal the match.

A penalty try followed as Rotherham’s pack was deservedly rewarded for their dominance.

To their credit however the home side stuck to their task and collected a second try late on through front row forward Tom Anderson.

Before the referee blew for time Jackson Barling stormed in for his second and Titans sixth, before the hosts finished off as former Titan Ricky Cano went over near the corner.

Reflecting after the game Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“We had lots of challenges today, it was a tough travel in terms of we were on the coach for over 3 hours, the conditions were greasy, and the wind is sometimes more difficult to play in than the rain.

“And then you have the opposition to contend with; you could clearly see how much it meant to them, they were emotionally charged, and they came at us until the very end.

“We had some key moments where some players stepped up, we had some great defensive sets where we were challenged, and we had some magic moments from some individual players.

“I was pleased with our physicality in defence against a team that wanted to play, and I think we’re starting to find some balance in our game.

“With a minute to go before the break we were able to maintain possession in key areas, we looked composed and that enabled us to take a score which was a big moment for us, and it also had an impact on them.

“That score took a bit of sting out of them; we did start well but that last 25 minutes of the half they put us under a lot of pressure. So, overall I’m pretty chuffed with the outcome.”

Titans: Barling (2T), Shaw (2T), Veness (T), Penalty Try, Hayes (4C)

Clifton: Evans (T), Anderson (T), Cano (T),

Yellow Card: Okafor (Titans) Hutchinson (Clifton)

Attendance: 552

Referee: Callum Watson

Assistant Referees: Adam Carpenter & Emmerson Wood

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Metcalfe 64), 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 58), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 60), 3 Xavier Valentine (Foster 53), 4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 Fraser Hastie (Baldry 53), 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Ellis Thomas.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Jack Baldry, 20 Will Metcalfe.

Clifton: 15 Harry Johnson, 14 Matty Jones, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Dylan Power, 11 Ollie Harris, 10 Tom Quinlan (McKinney 58), 9 Mitch Spencer (McCarthy 58), 1 Ricky Cano, 2 George Davey (Anderson 40), 3 Pat Ratumaisese (Buckley 40), 4 Toby Hutchinson (Capt.), 5 Shay Sainsbury (Myatt 14), 6 Brad Talbot, 7 Jay Evans, 8 Harry Hone.

Replacements: 16 Jake Buckley, 17 Tom Anderson, 18 Freddie Myatt, 19 Max McCarthy, 20 James McKinney.

Titans 52 Leeds Tykes 12

Rotherham Titans continued their fine early season form with a stunning 52-12 win over Yorkshire rivals Leeds Tykes on a bright afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Both sides gave everything in a pulsating National 1 derby clash that was full of skill, intensity and physicality.

However, it was the South Yorkshire outfit that eventually overpowered the visitors to run in 8 tries to 2 and maintain their perfect start to the season.

The first half in particular was a keenly fought affair that saw Rotherham take an early lead through fly half Rob Povey after he showed good awareness to squeeze over after 4 just minutes.

Leeds however were up for the battle as they looked to match Rotherham’s physicality and they showed ambition with ball in hand. This in turn led to them nudging ahead on 16 minutes when winger Sam Taylor rounded the Titans defence for a converted try.

Rotherham responded quickly to reestablish their advantage with first hooker Morgan Veness dotting down from the tail of a powerful maul, followed by second rower Curran Maguire being on hand to go over after some fine work by Rob Povey.

The first half played out with no further scores, but it wasn’t for the lack of effort from two sides looking to dominate whenever possible.

After the interval Rotherham ramped up the intensity which resulted in a dominant display that saw them score a further 5 tries.

John Okafor was on hand to make the most of an interception from a back-peddling Leeds scrum on 44 minutes.

Centre Lloyd Hayes was next on the scoresheet when he unexpectedly sniped over from the base of a ruck!

Replacement hooker Luke Cole scored Titans sixth try when he dabbed down from the tail of another powerful drive.

Rotherham’s penultimate try was a lovely one; second rower Curran Maguire threw a long pass infield to full back Isaac Shaw, who proceeded to glide through the Leeds defence from 40 metres out to score near the corner.

The eighth and final try for Rotherham came from turnover ball on their own 22. The ball arrived with Will Metcalfe who showed great pace to gallop 80 metres downfield to score under the posts.

Although Leeds scored a consolation try in injury time with the last play from skipper Adam Brown, it didn’t take the shine off what was an outstanding display from the hosts.

The Titans must be pleased with their start to the new season having won both games with bonus points and scoring 14 tries.

They will now refocus on their preparation ahead of their next task away to league newcomers Clifton next week at Station Road.

Speaking after the game Titans Harvey Biljon reflected:

“Never underestimate a Yorkshire derby; you look at the scoreline but don’t underestimate how much that would have taken out of our players.

“I’m impressed with the way the players trained this week and with the way they stayed focused though the game. It was a testament to our whole squad; we had a few changes from last week and I’m really pleased to come away with the win.

“There’s a couple of areas that stand out for me; I think the way we are defending is an area where we can take some confidence.

“There’s a real shared responsibility across the forwards and backs that’s coming through in how we play and in the first half, we only got into their tryline area 6 times, but we came away with 3 scores. We also felt we needed to address our discipline, because that was inviting pressure and to be fair, I thought Leeds played well in the first half.

“In the second half I think our territory and possession told, which meant they had to probably change what they were trying to achieve, and we were able to take advantage of any unforced errors.

“However, we’ll not get too caught up in that because we are going to have another big challenge next week at Clifton.”

Titans: Povey (T), Veness (T), Maguire (T), Okafor (T), Cole (T), Shaw (T), Metcalfe (T), Hayes (T, 6C)

Leeds Tykes: Taylor (T), A. Brown (T), Crossland (2C)

Yellow Card: None

Attendance: 250

Referee: Ben Simpson

Assistant Referees: Ian Farrell & Brendan Fitzmaurice

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Metcalfe 73), 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 58), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 57), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 57), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Hastie 65), 5 Curran Maguire, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Fraser Hastie, 20 Will Metcalfe.

Leeds Tykes: 15 Charlie Venables (Macnab 59), 14 Will Yates, 13 Ben Dixon, 12 Tom Wiliams, 11 Sam Taylor, 10 Eddie Crossland, 9 Ewan Laughton, 1 Toby Williams (Pleasants 73), 2 Adam Brown (Capt.), 3 Will Dennis (Cordice 57), 4 Louis Guthrie, 5 Tom Collins, 6 Lucas Walsh (E. Brown 47), 7 Connor Walker (Smith 29) (Walker 78), 8 Jonny Teague.

Replacements: 16 Alex Pleasants, 17 Jordan Cordice, 18 Will Smith, 19 Eddie Brown, 20 Henry Macnab.

Photo: Gareth Lyons

Sale FC 28 Titans 43

Rotherham Titans started their National 1 campaign in style with an impressive 43-28 bonus-point win over a very good Sale FC side, on a sunny afternoon at Heywood Road.

Titans outscored their hosts by 6 tries to 4 with dot downs from Morgan Veness, Jackson Barling, JB Bruzulier, Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, Isaac Shaw and John Okafor, with Lloyd Hayes adding 13 points from the tee.

Titans stunned the hosts with an explosive start that saw them score 4 tries inside the opening half hour.

Morgan Veness peeled off a driving maul to bulldoze his way over for the first as early as the fourth minute.

Jackson Barling was on hand to scoop up a wayward pass from Sale’s Will Addison before strolling in from 30 metres.

Titans third came from scrum half JB Bruzulier; the experienced half back was alert enough to dive over under pressure from close range, following a period of forward domination.

The bonus point try came soon afterwards when a long miss-pass was gathered up nicely by Mitchell Lacey-Babalola to dart home.

Lloyd Hayes sent over a penalty just after the half hour mark to send his side into a 29-0 lead.

A better opening 30 minutes to the season could not have been dreamed of.

However, in National 1 and away from home there really is no easy games, and a side such as Sale FC were always going to have their say on the game.

On the stroke of half time Sale gave themselves a boost when Josh Brown scrambled over following a series of pick and goes.

The hosts emerged at the restart with a renewed energy, and they immediately secured their second score when hooker Nathan Langdon capitalised on a Titans error at the line out close to the line.

The Rotherham nerves may have started to jangle when on 55 minutes Sale went over for their third try through winger Nev Edwards after they ran the ball back from a clearance kick.

That score reduced Sale’s deficit to 29-21 with 25 minutes left in the game and the home crowd sense a sensational comeback was on the cards.

Rotherham however showed great maturity as they weathered the Sale storm, before eventually breaking the home sides resistance with two further tries.

Titans pack began to get back on top and a series of drives took them up to the line before the ball was flung out to full back Isaac Shaw who nipped in for a nice score.

Titans sealed the game in style when they ran a kick back from just outside their 22. The ball arrived with JB Bruzulier who raced down the right before drawing the last man and finding John Okafor in support. The big second rower galloped in to touch down with a theatrical swallow dive.

In stoppage time Sale deservedly collected a losing bonus point for their efforts when replacement back Sean Street finished off a nice break from the hosts.

What a game it was to start the new campaign!

Rotherham would have been delighted to have put in such an impressive performance and to have picked up 5 points on the road.

They will now look to reset and prepare for what will be another huge game when Leeds Tykes visit Clifton Lane on Saturday in what is always a tense and tight Yorkshire derby.

Speaking after their victory Harvey Biljon reflected:

“It’s great to get the monkey off our back; we’ve gone and beaten Sale at Sale which we’ve never done before.

“Sale are a very tough team, they were physical, and you could see the step up from our pre-season games in terms of the physicality; they won the scoreboard either side of half time and that always puts you under pressure.

“From our squad, if you look at the script, we went off in that first half and I was really impressed with how we controlled ourselves, but we need to make sure we don’t invite pressure.

“I think there was a couple of times where we almost thought the game was won and Sale showed how good they were and how tough it is in this league that teams will come back at you.

“So, we just need to make sure we execute our skill, we stay on top of our gameplan, and we stick to task.

“I was pleased however with our problem solving; we lost our second row pairing of Frankie Gascoigne and Harry Gilson-Fox and then we had a yellow card.

“We had to problem solve through those 10 minutes and I was impressed with how we did that, and I just think the impact from the bench was outstanding, everyone contributed today.”

Titans: Veness (T), Barling (T), JB Bruzulier (T), Lacey-Babalola (T), Shaw (T), Okafor (T), Hayes (5C, 1P)

Sale FC: Brown (T), Langdon (T), Edwards (T), Street (T), Addison (4C)

Yellow Card: Bustin (Titans), Parker & Dixon (Sale FC)

Attendance: 720

Referee: Dan Rowlands

Assistant Referees: Ian Farrell & Simon Park

Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 11 Sinjin Broad, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 62), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 36), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 60), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Bustin 48), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox (Newborn 70), 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn © (Gordon 60), 8 Ellis Thomas.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Travis Gordon, 20 Callum Bustin.

Sale FC: 15 Tom Brady, 14 Nev Edwards, 13 Will Addison, 12 Fergus Mulchrone, 11 Mark Dixon (Ford 35), 10 Will Davies (Wilson 11), 9 Joe Green, 1 Ben Carlisle (Birchall 48), 2 Nathan Langdon, 3 Ciaran Parker (Dixon 40), 4 Evan Mintern, 5 Pete Vickers (Perkins 70), 6 Andrew Hughes (Capt.), 7 Josh Brown, 8 Stone Priestley-Nangle (Street 62).

Replacements: 16 Dan Birchall, 17 Callum Ford, 18 George Perkins, 19 Toby Wilson, 20 Sean Street.

Photo: Argon Media

Rosslyn Park 56 Titans 26

Rotherham Titans finished off their impressive first season back in National 1 with a 56-26 defeat to second placed side Rosslyn Park on a warm afternoon at Priory Lane.

Titans were outscored by 8 tries to 4 with their dot downs coming via a brace from John Okafor and one each for Ronnie Du Randt and Ben Wright: the league’s leading scorer Lloyd Hayes added 6 points from the tee.

Despite the loss Rotherham can be hugely proud of their achievement in finishing third in the league, as before the campaign started some doubted whether Titans could even compete at this level and at best maybe they could avoid relegation.

So, a massive well done to the team at Clifton Lane.

The game itself saw Rosslyn Park fly out of the blocks to race into a 14-0 lead inside opening 15 minutes, with scores from hooker Jasper Cameron and winger Charlie Walker.

To their credit at the end of a long campaign Rotherham managed to find the energy to claw their way back into the game and level the scores inside the opening half hour, with tries from winger Ronnie Du Randt and back rower John Okafor.

However, it was clear to see the home side had plenty to play for in their final game at home and their energy reserves were well stocked.

Those energy levels were impressively revealed inside the final 10 minutes of the half as Park ran in three further tries, with Jasper Cameron grabbing a second and centre Tom Stanton securing the bonus point and prop forward Ali Wade adding a fifth.

Rotherham as always gave their all and they sparked hope of a comeback early into the second half when John Okafor finished off nicely after being sent in by Rob Povey.

However, hopes of a sensational comeback were soon thwarted by former Titans favourite Charlie Mulchrone who showed a terrific turn of foot to score Park’s sixth try of the game.

Rotherham did however secure a deserved bonus point for their endeavours when hooker Ben Wright dotted down from the tail of a powerful maul.

Nevertheless, two more tries for the home side saw Jasper Cameron claim his hat trick and second rower Tom Bell close the show with his sides eight try of the match.

Speaking afterwards Harvey Biljon reflected:

“First and foremost, we have to say credit to Rosslyn Park; they’ve had a great season themselves, and they clearly wanted to end the season on a high at home and they did that and congratulations to them.

“As for our players, following promotion last year and being at this end of the table after a long season, we are immensely proud of what they have achieved.

“It was great to see so many of our players out there today who have been on this journey with us, they are the ones that got us promotion and who got us to where we are this season, and it was great to see them playing out there as a group of friends.

“It was a high scoring game and you would expect that with the weather on this surface; I thought Rosslyn Park started really well and they went 14-0 up. We got ourselves back into the game at 14 all, then they broke away before half and we couldn’t convert the opportunities we had created.

“We started well in the second half, but I think we got to that point where we started to miss opportunities and Rosslyn Park started to capitalise on them.

“Overall, though when you look at the season as a whole, we are really chuffed that we are talking about us finishing third, considering some people questioned whether we would even survive in National 1.

“It’s been a rollercoaster journey we’ve been on and it’s one we’ve thoroughly enjoyed with our supporters being in a new league. I’ve visited lots of grounds I’ve not visited before and what a campaign it’s been to be a part of.”

Titans: Okafor (2T), Du Randt (T), Wright (T), Hayes (3C)

Rosslyn Park: Cameron (3T), Walker (T), Stanton (T), Wade (T), Mulchrone (T), Bell (T), Bragman (7C), James (1C)

Yellow Card: Spencer (Rosslyn Park)

Attendance: 850

Referee: Ben Wood

Assistant Referees: Gavin Scott & Stuart Dillon

Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Naylor 52), 1 Alastair Donkor (Kivalu 24) (Donkor 55), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Wright 40), 3 Rikki Stout (Foster 41), 4 Lewis Allan (Newborn 40), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Travis Gordon (Allan 50), 8 Zak Poole ©.

Replacements: 16 Ben Wright, 17 Loma Kivalu, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Harry Newborn, 20 James Naylor.

Rosslyn Park: 15 Joe Luca-Smith, 14 Charlie Walker, 13 Tom Stanton (Mulchrone 36), 12 James Cordy-Redden, 11 Benji Marfo, 10 Joshua Bragman (James 71), 9 Ewan Fenley, 1 Ali Wade (Hay 55) (Wade 68), 2 Jasper Cameron, 3 Matt Woodward, 4 Gregor Gillanders (Ellis 59), 5 Tom Bell (Cleet 40) (Bell 68), 6 Henry Spencer, 7 Arthur Ellis © (Ledger 36), 8 Dan Laventure (Gillanders 79).

Replacements: 16 Austin Hay, 17 Jake Cleet, 18 Harry Ledger, 19 Charlie Mulchrone, 20 Stefan James.

Titans 40 Richmond 38

Rotherham Titans finished off their home campaign in style with a thrilling, high scoring 40-38 win over Champions Richmond on a warm afternoon at Clifton Lane.

The teams shared 12 tries in a highly competitive clash in which neither side gave an inch, as both sets of players desperately fought out a titanic tussle.

Rotherham’s tries came from Ellis Thomas, Travis Gordon, Ronnie Du Randt, John Okafor, Rob Povey and Jack Townend, with Lloyd Hayes adding 10 points from the tee.

The contest burst into life from the outset as Richmond raced into the lead after 2 minutes when second rower Jake Monson picked up from the base of a ruck close to the line, before darting over next to the sticks.

The visitors added to their tally soon after when following a kick downfield skipper Jimmy Litchfield crash over in the corner, doubling the lead to 14-0

The one thing that cannot be questioned about this Rotherham side is their heart, desire and their determination to never give up.

So, no one should have been surprised when before the 20-minute mark they crossed the whitewash twice to narrow the deficit to 2 points.

First up, number 8 Ellis Thomas was on hand to finish off a catch and drive, before Travis Gordon snaffled upon a mistake from the Richmond defence to charge in near the corner.

As the half drew to an end and well into the fourth minute of injury time, Richmond put in a number of heavy drives which resulted in number 8 Sam Pim being bundled over. The conversion from fly half Callum Grieve sent the visitors in with a healthy 21-12 lead.

Astonishingly, inside the opening 4 minutes of the restart Rotherham took the lead for the first time!

On 42 minutes they spread play the full width of the pitch to winger Ronnie Du Randt, who from 40 metres out proceeded to burst through the Richmond defence to score a lovely try in the corner.

Just 2 minutes later and Rotherham scored an even better try.

Lloyd Hayes collected the ball deep inside his own 22 before charging downfield, evading numerous attempted tackles before finding John Okafor in support. The big man pinned his ears back and galloped home from 45 metres to huge roars from the Clifton Lane faithful. Hayes converted to give the Titans a 26-21 lead.

Richmond aren’t champions without good reason and they soon got back on the scoreboard.

Following another heavy shift from their big pack the ball was spun out wide to full back Alex O’Meara who ran in for the easiest of scores. However, Grieve missed the conversion leaving the game tied at 26-26.

In what was already a humdinger of a match, the excitement levels were about to reach new heights for the home side.

On the hour mark and following some good forward pressure from Rotherham, the ball was sent to fly half Rob Povey. He stepped back inside before squeezing through a narrow gap to score a fine try.

It got even better for the Titans shortly after when Jack Townend collected a clearing kick about 65 metres out. The full back chose to run it and he proceeded to go the full length before side-stepping his final man to score an outstanding try. Hayes converted to give his side a 40-26 lead.

Inside the final 10 minutes the champions showed great determination to get back into the game, as tries from Jimmy Litchfield with a catch and drive and Sam Pim with a pick and go drew them to within 2 points, it would have been a level game, but Callum Grieve’s first conversion missed its mark.

Deep into stoppage time Richmond had the opportunity to nose back ahead with a penalty from out wide, but unfortunately for them Grieve’s difficult effort slid past the left upright and Rotherham held out for a famous win.

To be fair it was a deserved win for the South Yorkshire side and with one game remaining they are guaranteed to finish no lower than third in the table and that is an outstanding achievement in their first season back up in National 1.

Commenting afterwards Harvey Biljon said:

“I think the first thing we have to say is credit to our players and the way they responded.

“Before the game and particularly at half time, to come out and put themselves into a position to win. Do not underestimate how tough a game that was; when you are playing the champions who have the freedom to go and play.

“For us to stick in it, get ahead and then have to come back again, and then the defensive effort at the end to see it out and get the result, that makes me hugely proud of them.

“And I’m thankful to all the supporters, you could hear them at key moments; they made a huge difference today and they were absolutely outstanding.

“What a great way to celebrate this season, I know we’ve got a game to go, but to put on a performance like that in front of our supporters in what has been a rollercoaster year, that was amazing.

“I spoke to Rob Powell (Richmond’s DOR) before the game, and I said to him not to underestimate the achievement of winning the league.

“I know players and coaches that that have been through their whole careers and not won any silverware.

“So, enjoy it and embrace it and I wish them luck against Blackheath next week; let’s hope when they present that trophy it comes after a great result and performance at home.”

Titans: Thomas (T), Gordon (T), Du Randt (T), Okafor (T), Povey (T).  Townend (T), Hayes (5C)

Richmond: Pim (2T), Litchfield (2T), Monson (T), O’Meara (T), Grieve (4C)

Yellow Card: Capps (Titans)

Red Card: Savaiinaea (Richmond

Attendance: 250

Referee: Henry Pearson

Assistant Referees: Daniel Rowlands & Jason Garrick

Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Cuchulain Livingstone (Naylor 40), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Zach Toerien (Capps 26), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Wright 61), 3 Rikki Stout (Foster 35), 4 Harry Gilson-Fox (Poole 40), 5 John Okafor, 6 Travis Gordon ©,7 Harry Newborn, 8 Ellis Thomas.

Replacements: 16 Ben Wright, 30 Charlie Capps ©, 18 Andrew Foster, 27 Zak Poole ©, 21 James Naylor.

Richmond: 15 Alex O’Meara, 14 Sam Smith, 13 Paddy Case, 12 Tololima Savaiinaea, 11 Josh Addams, 10 Callum Grieve, 9 Matt Marsh, 1 Chris Freeman, 2 Will Goffey, 3 Jimmy Litchfield © (Murray 68), 4 Jake Monson, 5 George Nugent, 6 Ethan Benson, 7 Xavier Hastings, 8 Sam Pim.

Replacements: 16 Hamish Murray, 17 Barnaby Vaughan, 18 Miles Wakeling, 19 Luc Jones, 20 James Langston.

Photo: Gareth Siddons

Blackheath 31 Titans 24

Rotherham Titans put in a huge effort before eventually losing 31-24 to Blackheath on a bright, but windy afternoon at The Utilita at Well Hall.

Titans picked up 2 bonus points for their endeavours, scoring four tries through Harry Newborn, Cuchulain Livingstone, Ronnie Du Randt and Charlie Capps.

The defeat sees Richmond crowned as worthy National 1 champions and Rotherham slip into third in the table.

The game could have gone either way and had Rotherham been more clinical with their opportunities, then Richmond would have had to wait at least another week before sealing their deserved accolade.

Indeed, it was Rotherham that started the game much the brighter as they got the scoreboard moving inside 5 minutes when hooker Harry Newborn dotted down under the sticks following a short pass from scrum half JB Bruzulier.

However, Blackheath were quick to respond, and they soon took the lead with two tries from full back Augustin Slowik, although the second try began with a forward pass that unfortunately for Rotherham the officials missed.

Club’s third try however was a wonderfully worked move which began deep inside their own half and included a number of smart passes and a chip over the top, before winger Jake Lloyd finished off for the try of the match.

Rotherham nibbled back shortly after when John Okafor charged down a clearing kick, with Cuchulain Livingstone on hand to gather and nip in to score.

Titans would have been disappointed with their part in Club’s fourth try which allowed livewire scrum half Jordan Burns to race in for the bonus point.

However, the final score of the half saw Rotherham narrow the gap after good work in the build up from Ellis Thomas and Jamie Cooke took play up to the Blackheath line, before a nice little pass from Rob Povey sent in Ronnie Du Randt for a smart try.

Coming out for the second half with the elements in their favour and trailing by just 7 points (24-17), Rotherham would have been more than hopeful of overturning their deficit.

However, after spending the opening 20 minutes pretty much camped in the Blackheath half of the pitch, a combination of reasons meant they didn’t score a point in this period.

That made the next score a difficult pill to swallow for Rotherham, when essentially for the first time inside the Titans 22 in the second half, number 8 Tom Baldwin finished off from a breakaway.

Nevertheless, the Titans players kept on battling, as they have for the full season, and close to full time they received a just reward when prop forward Charlie Capps bulldozed his way over to secure 2 points for the South Yorkshire side.

Titans defeat ensured Richmond would be crowned Champions and there’s no doubt they are worthy winners and Rotherham Titans send their congratulations and best wishes for their return to Championship status next term.

Indeed, Rotherham will be able to do that face-to-face next Saturday when Richmond visit Clifton Lane for Titans final home game of the season.

Speaking after the match Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“I am really pleased we have come away with 2 points in what was a really difficult fixture. I think there would have been a lot of emotion around the game, a lot of people trying to work out permutations as to where we are in the league and who’s going to be in contention and things like that, there was a lot of noise going on.

“So, the fact that we could stick at it for 80 minutes and put ourselves in a position to get two bonus points today was pretty important.

“Blackheath have hit their stride at the back end of the season with some great results against Dings, Rams and against us now too and you could definitely see there was a real emotion in the Blackheath team.

“Blackheath were celebrating that a whole host of their players had played a significant number of games and they had some players making their final appearance at home today. Their DOR, James Shanahan, was also in charge for the last time at home as he is moving on next season, and you could see there was a lot of emotion.

“So, I’m really proud of the way our players stood up to that challenge and we’ll go away probably not frustrated with the opposition, but frustrated with ourselves, because we definitely missed and left opportunities out there.”

Titans: Newborn (T), Livingstone (T), Du Randt (T), Capps (T), Hayes (2C)

Blackheath: Slowik (2T), Lloyd (T), Burns (T), Baldwin (T), Ffitch (3C)

Yellow Card: Slowik (Blackheath)

Attendance: 925

Referee: Jamie Parr

Assistant Referees: Andrew MacNeaney & Michael Maple

Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Ronnie Du Randt, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Cuchulain Livingstone, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Naylor 68), 1 Charlie Capps © (Toerien 27) (Capps 59), 2 Harry Newborn (Wright 71), 3 Andrew Foster (Stout 27) (Foster 55), 4 Zak Poole © (Maguire 63) (Poole 71), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Travis Gordon, 8 Ellis Thomas.

Replacements: 16 Ben Wright, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Curran Maguire, 20 James Naylor.

Blackheath: 15 Augustin Slowik, 14 Jake Lloyd, 13 Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas, 12 Markus Burcham, 11 Jake Hennessey (Fielding 55), 10 Tom Ffitch (Hennessey 71), 9 Jordan Burns (Daly 71), 1 Archie Holland (Davis 54), 2 Alex Witchell (Walker 55), 3 Andrew Boye (Marsh 54), 4 Tom Stradwick, 22 Tex Cavubati, 6 Josh Smart, 7 Noah Sloot 8 Tom Baldwin ©.

Replacements: 16 Ollie Walker, 17 Will Davis, 24 Rory Marsh, 19 Jack Daly, 20 Leo Fielding.

Rams 30 Titans 19

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.

Titans 38 Sedgley Park 29

Rotherham Titans kept the pressure on at the top of the league with a well-deserved 38-29 win in a high-scoring thriller on a bright afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans outscored Park by six tries to four with dot downs coming from Luckas Sableman-Blue, Harry Gilson-Fox, Callum Bustin, Morgan Veness, Zach Toerien and Lloyd Hayes, with the latter also adding 8 points from the tee.

Titans had the better of the first half and secured the bonus point inside the opening 35 minutes, with Park’s only score coming from a try for winger Rhys Henderson midway through the half.

Titans stormed into the lead as early as the third minute when winger Luckas Sableman-Blue finished off after receiving a sharp pass from fly half Rob Povey.

Despite Park narrowing the gap Rotherham soon restored their advantage with two quick tries inside three minutes.

Firstly, Lloyd Hayes was on hand to intercept and charge home from 40 metres and then some slack work from Sedgley in clearing their lines saw second rower Harry Gilson-Fox exploit the opportunity to crash over under the sticks.

Callum Bustin showed good awareness to power over with a quick tap close to the line which extended the lead further before the break.

If anyone thought Sedgley Park might roll over in the second half they would have been badly mistaken.

Inside the opening 10 minutes centre Nathan Pope popped up to narrow the gap with an arching run, with full back Oliver Glasse converting. Glasse reduced his sides arrears further shortly afterwards with a smart 3-pointer.

The game was developing into a more open affair with each side prepared to take a few more risks.

The next score came after a lovely break from Lloyd Hayes, with Jamie Cooke in support which took play up to the Sedgley line. The ball was recycled out for hooker Morgan Veness to crash over.

However, moments after the restart Sedgley bounced straight back with a sharp try from scrum half Matt Sturgess which kept Rotherham on edge as they knew their opponents were not about to go away.

Inside the final 10 minutes Titans nerves were calmed somewhat when replacement prop forward Zach Toerien bulldozed his way over after James Naylor slip him in close to the line.

But those stubborn Sedgley boys just refused to go away and 3 minutes from time replacement forward Adam Mallinson was driven over to secure a deserved bonus point for his side.

Deep into injury time Park had two long range penalty efforts slide wide of the mark which would have given them a second bonus point, but unfortunately for them it wasn’t to be.

Rotherham will enjoy their hard-earned victory, but the focus will quickly switch to their next task when they travel to Rams next Saturday.

Commenting after the game Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“I don’t think we could have asked for anymore, we got the five points and at times we really looked like we were in our rhythm, and we scored some really good tries.

“Then there was a couple of moments where our defensive sets were exceptional.

“We came up against a team that is known for their attacking intent and it really stood out that we could weather the storm at times, that helped us just to interrupt any momentum they could get.

“Sedgley Park did score some good tries, and we’ll give them credit for those, but I think if you look at the steps through the middle of the park, that was something I was pretty impressed with from our players.”

Titans: Sableman-Blue (T), Gilson-Fox (T), Bustin (T), Veness (T), Toerien (T), Hayes (T, 4C)

Sedgley Park: Henderson, (T), Pope (T), Sturgess (T), Mallinson (T), Glasse (3C, 1P)

Yellow Card: None

Attendance: 250

Referee: Henry Pearson

Assistant Referees: Peter Connor & Brendan Fitzmaurice

Titans: 15 Ronnie Du Randt, 14 Luckas Sableman-Blue (Barrett 70), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Calum Barrett (Townend 58), 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Naylor 58), 1 Charlie Capps © (Toerien 58), 2 Morgan Veness, 3 Andrew Foster (Harrison 59), 4 John Okafor, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 Travis Gordon ©, 7 Harry Newborn (Maguire 65), 8 Callum Bustin.

Replacements: 16 Curran Maguire 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Eoin Harrison, 19 Jack Townend, 20 James Naylor.

Sedgley Park: 15 Oliver Glasse, 14 Rhys Henderson, 13 Nathan Pope, 12 Cameron Scanlon, 11 Albert Bradshaw, 10 Warren Seals (Riley 30), 9 Matt Sturgess, 1 John Blanchard (Downham 58), 2 Ben Gregory (Mallinson 68), 3 Danny Rylance (Blanchard 73), 4 Bob Birtwell ©, 5 Will Connor (Cox 58), 6 Connor James (Deans 68), 7 Lewis Bradley, 8 Tom Ailes.

Replacements: 16 Austin Downham, 17 Adam Mallinson, 18 Isaac Deans, 19 Luke Cox, 20 Matt Riley.

Photo: Gareth Siddons

Plymouth Albion 23 Titans 20

Rotherham Titans put in a huge physical effort before ultimately falling short as they went down 23-20 to Plymouth Albion on a grey afternoon at Brickfields

The sides shared 6 tries in this attritional encounter with Titans dot downs coming from Morgan Veness, Callum Bustin and Ronnie Du Randt, with Lloyd Hayes adding 5 points from the tee.

Titans were under the pump from the off with Albion starting the game much the brighter.

Indeed, Rotherham seldom got out of their own half inside the opening 20 minutes, and it was testament to their defensive resilience that the home side led by just 3 points at this stage: a Tom Putt penalty being the only reward for their dominance.

When Rotherham finally got inside the Albion half they wasted little time in prospering from their visits, as they scored two tries inside five minutes.

Firstly, hooker Morgan Veness finished off from the tail of a powerful maul and then Callum Bustin collected and showed good pace and power as he charged in from distance to score. Hayes converted the latter to give Rotherham a 12-3 lead.

A visit to Brickfields is notoriously a difficult place to go and get a result and there are various reasons for that.

However, the fact they have a very good team is the main reason and Albion quickly bounced back with a converted try from centre Archie Hill.

Just before half time the home side retook the lead when Tom Putt knocked over a 3-pointer.

With the wind now in Titans favour they wasted little time in retaking the lead when Lloyd Hayes slotted a nice 3-pointer from distance.

The lead was short lived however as Albion stormed back and following a period of forward pressure inside the Titans 22, hooker Harry Wilkinson barged his way over for a try to nudge his side 18-15 ahead.

Before the hour mark however, disaster struck for Rotherham as captain Zak Poole received a second yellow card for a high tackle and was red carded, leaving Titans with 14 men for the remainder of the game.

Encouraged, Albion stepped up their intensity as they looked to make their numerical advantage count.

As the game went into the final 10 minutes the pressure finally told on Rotherham’s defence as Albion’s loose head prop Ethan Burger went over for his side’s third try, to stretch the lead to 23-15.

To their credit Rotherham never gave up and late on in the game their endeavours were rewarded when Ronnie Du Randt dotted down in the corner.

Trailing now by just 3 points but with time quickly running out, Rotherham went in search of a fourth try that would have given them the bonus point win.

Unfortunately for them however, Albion’s defence stood firm as they held on for the win which keeps them in contention at the business end of the table.

Rotherham will now rest a few bumps and bruises before switching their focus to the visit of Sedgley Park to Clifton Lane on Saturday, as they continue their pursuit of Richmond at the top.

Reflecting afterwards Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“What a helluva game to be part of; to come all the way down to Plymouth and come away with a point is a great result for Rotherham Titans.

“We need to put this into context; Rotherham absorbed a huge amount of pressure through the beginning of that game. I think we did get a score against the run of play, but that kept us in it.

“But you have to understand you can’t play the game away from home with 14 players for over 45 minutes, but I don’t want to focus on that.

“The key thing we should be focused on is the resilience we showed with 14 men to stay in the game and then to still be playing at the death trying to win the match.

“That for me shows great character and how great is it going to be, to be part of this run-in through the back end of the season.”

Titans: Veness (T), Bustin (T), Du Randt (T), (Hayes (1C, 1P)

Plymouth Albion: Hill (T), Wilkinson (T), Burger (T), (Putt 1C, 2P)

Yellow Card: Newborn (Titans)

Red Card: Poole (Titans)

Attendance: 1542

Referee: Matt Sharpe

Assistant Referees: Peter Dixon & Dave Philpot

Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tomasi Tanumi (Okafor 59), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Zach Toerien (Capps 30), 2 Morgan Veness (Maguire 69), 3 Eoin Harrison (Foster 30), 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, 27 Curran Maguire, 21 James Naylor.

Plymouth Albion: 15 Tom Putt (Dart 59), 14 Shae Cornish, 13 Israel Akinrowo, 12 Archie Hill, 11 Bobby Wigginton, 10 Harry Legg, 9 Jack Oulton ©, 1 Ethan Burger (Boughton 71), 2 Harry Wilkinson (Williams 62), 3 Jenson Boughton (Dan Pullinger 48), 4 Joel Broadhurst (Burger 75), 5 Jake Clemson, 6 Jago Sheppard, 7 Jake Bond (Mead 65), 8 Ben Moa (Clarke 62).

Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Torin Clarke, 18 Dan Pullinger, 22 Gabe Mead, 20 Frankie Dart.

Titans 28 Birmingham Moseley 27

Rotherham Titans had to work their socks off to beat a physical Birmingham Mosely outfit 28-27 on a bright, sunny afternoon at Clifton Lane.

Titans had to overcome a big, powerful Moseley side head-on to earn the right to win this attritional clash, as each side crossed the whitewash three times.

Rotherham’s dot downs came via a brace from number 8 Callum Bustin and one for winger Calum Barrett, with Lloyd Hayes adding 13 points from the tee.

This hard-fought but well-deserved win helps keep the South Yorkshire side hot on the heels of leaders Richmond and despite the bonus point not being collected, Titans are only 3 points behind in second spot.

Nonetheless, inside the opening half hour it looked as though the home side would secure the extra point as they raced into a 19-3 lead following 3 quick tries.

Callum Bustin got the scoreboard moving early when he crashed over following a catch and drive close to the line.

Soon after Titans had their second score when following a good break by prop forward Charlie Capps, the ball was flung out wide by JB Bruzulier to Jamie Cooke, who in turn found Travis Gordon and he drew the last man before sending in winger Calum Barrett for a nice try in the corner.

Scrum half Jack Jolly got the visitors on the board with a penalty before Callum Bustin popped up again, this time in ‘Plants Corner’, to finish off from a catch and drive.

If the Clifton Lane faithful thought this was going to be a walk in the park from here on in, then they would’ve been badly mistaken.

In the final ten minutes of the first half Moseley demonstrated once again they are a side that just never gives up or goes away, and to prove it they ran in two converted tries through Aquile Smith and Will Safe.

The tries sandwiched a Lloyd Hayes penalty and Rotherham went in at the break holding a narrow 22-17 lead.

Ten minutes after the interval Moseley took the lead for the first time when a kick from inside their own half bounced kindly for centre Ollie Allsopp, who juggled to gain control, before racing through to score in the corner under pressure.

The conversion from near the touch line was impressively nailed by Jack Jolly to give his side a slender 24-22 lead.

The game became tense and edgy as both sides looked to gain the advantage.

The lead switched repeatedly as first Hayes bagged a penalty, then Jolly and then Hayes again.

With 20 minutes to go Rotherham enjoyed the lion’s share of territory and possession and went in search of securing the win and bonus point.

Indeed, inside the final five minutes they had good opportunities to do so as they camped on the line, but credit to Moseley, their determined defensive efforts managed to keep the Titans out.

Nevertheless, the win was an important one and now Rotherham will look to rest a few bumps and bruises before embarking on the longest trip of the year to Plymouth Albion.

Reflecting after the game Titans Harvey Biljon said:

“That was a heck of a squad performance; don’t underestimate the adversity that we are going through with injuries and people having to play out of position.

“However, for about 25 minutes of the game we looked on fire, but what was unusual for us is we went off task; and when we did Moseley got into the game and that’s what happens when you come up against good teams.

“Give Moseley credit, they stayed in the battle and that’s what it’s going to be like for us, there’s not going to be any easy games, and we’ll have to continue to push in terms of our performance.

“I said to the players before the game we would need to stay in every moment, and you could see today that we probably missed a couple of those moments.

“But it’s a win and we are delighted with that and we’ll try to keep it going.”

Titans: Bustin (2T), Barrett (T), Hayes (2C, 3P)

Birmingham Moseley: Aquile Smith (T), Safe (T), Allsopp (T), Jolly (3C, 2P)

Yellow Card: None

Attendance: 250

Referee: Ben Rayner

Assistant Referees: Matt Daubney & Jason Garrick

Titans: 15 Ronnie Du Randt, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jamie Cooke, 11 Calum Barrett, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Charlie Capps ©, 2 Loma Kivalu (Logavatu 47), 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Zak Poole ©, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 Travis Gordon, 7 Harry Newborn, 8 Callum Bustin.

Replacements: 16 Oliver Fretwell, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Eoin Harrison, 19 Joji Logavatu, 20 James Naylor.

Birmingham Moseley: 15 Freddie Painter, 14 Dan Brough, 13 Aquile Smith, 12 Ollie Allsopp, 11 Tuoyo Egodo, 10 Tighe Maxwell-Whiteley (Taylor 70), 9 Jack Jolly ©, 1 Ethan Priest (McNulty 16) (Priest 21), 2 Ryan Roach (Pogson 79), 3 David Langly (McNulty 53), 4 Harry Barnes, 5 Harry Butler (Smith 69), 6 Will Safe, 7 Morgan Dawes, 8 Adam Peters.

Replacements: 16 Ben Pogson, 17 Josh McNulty, 18 Fin Smith, 19 Santiago Edwards, 20 Tommy Taylor.

Photo: Gareth Siddons

Esher 34 Titans 68

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.

Bishop’s Stortford 11 Titans 17

Rotherham Titans endured a blood and thunder battle before eventually outmuscling a physical Bishop’s Stortford side 17-11 on a wet and grey afternoon at Silver Leys.

Titans outscored the hosts by two tries to one with a penalty try and a Lloyd Hayes dot down, with the latter also adding 5 points from the tee.

The hard-fought win sees Rotherham go into second spot in the table, 2 points behind Richmond, following Rams defeat to Birmingham Moseley.

This brutal clash took its toll in terms of injuries for Rotherham, as both hookers, Jack Bergmanas and Luke Cole and back rower John Okafor all left the field with worrying hand injuries.

The game itself was expected to be a challenging one, with Bishop’s having already beaten Titans earlier in the season at Clifton Lane and that’s exactly how it turned out.

The home side enjoyed the better moments of the first half, although it must be said with a little help from the visitors.

However, Stortford took the lead inside the opening 10 minutes when fly half Mike Cooke successfully nailed a penalty from distance and indeed, he could have doubled his sides advantage 15 minutes later, but surprisingly this time failed with his effort.

Nevertheless, the home side did extend their lead a minute later when centre Austin Pope wriggled over for an unconverted try, following a brief period of pressure inside the Titans 22.

Trailing 8-0 Rotherham remained calm and didn’t press the panic button.

Six minutes before the break they manoeuvred play downfield before eventually crashing over to score from a driving maul through Callum Bustin. However, before the number 8 could celebrate, referee Matt Sharpe upgraded the score to a penalty try.

Only desperate defending from Rotherham on their own line ensured they would go in at half time trailing by a solitary point at 8-7.

The second half saw the South Yorkshire side pick up the intensity and their pack started to gain the upper hand, particularly at scrum time.

However, the next score for Rotherham came from their backs, when a neat chip over the top from JB Bruzulier was chased and finished off by Lloyd Hayes, who then dried himself off before knocking over the conversion.

Before the hour mark Hayes nailed a long-range penalty to crucially extend Titans lead beyond a score.

Both sides from here on in continued to batter the other, as each looked to get the edge, but the only points scored came for the hosts in the final play when Cooke knocked over a 3-pointer to deservedly secure a losing bonus point.

The win was a huge one for Rotherham they’ll now try and rest some bruised bodies before going again next week when they travel to Esher for a rearranged fixture.

Commenting afterwards Harvey Biljon said:

“I think we set the tone back at training on Tuesday and Thursday around what was going to happen when we came to Bishop’s Stortford.

“Bishop’s are a team if we’re honest that are running high with confidence after just beating Rams and today with the conditions as they were, it was always going to come down to a bit of character and one or two moments in the game.

“But, for us to come through with a win away from home, with the amount of adversity we faced today is exceptional.

“We lost both our hookers, we lost line-out personnel, we lost key decision makers during the game, and I think 4 players were playing out of position at the end and we were down to 14.

“The players just stuck in with heart; sometimes you’ve got a plan in place and all those kinds of things, but I think the plan went out of the window and Rotherham Titans just showed absolute character!”

Titans: Penalty try, Hayes (T, C, P)

Bishop’s Stortford: Pope (T), Cooke 2P)

Yellow Card: Poole (Titans), Hill & Brownhill (Bishop’s)

Attendance: 535

Referee: Matt Sharpe

Assistant Referees: Steven Randall & Ben McNamara

Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Calum Barrett, 13 Tomasi Tanumi, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Ronnie Du Randt, 10 Lloyd Hayes, 9 JB Bruzulier (Naylor 61), 1 Charlie Capps ©, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Cole 17) (Newborn 57), 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Zak Poole ©, 5 Harry Maguire, 6 John Okafor (Toerien 74), 7 Ellis Thomas, 8 Callum Bustin.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Rikki Stout, 25 Harry Newborn, 21 James Naylor.

Bishop’s Stortford: 15 David Hayes, 14 Josh Stannard (Biard 54), 13 Tom Mills, 12 Austin Pope, 11 Alex Gilham (Hill 78), 10 Mike Cooke, 9 Chris Bolton (Briers 58), 1 Tristan Smith (Brownhill 57), 2 Isaac Bell (Rayment 49), 3 Toby Hill (Smith 75), 4 Hamish Ferguson, 5 Fraizer Kiff, 6 Harrison Langworthy, 7 Ollie Jones (Johnson 57), 8 Will Rogers (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Alex Rayment, 17 Seb Brownhill, 18 Sam Johnson, 19 Charlie Briers, 20 Jack Biard.