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.
