Rotherham Titans were made to graft hard before eventually running out 40-15 winners over a very good Sedgley Park outfit, on a windy afternoon at Clifton Lane.
The South Yorkshire side outscored Sedgley by 6 tries to 2 with dot downs from Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, John Okafor, Travis Gordon, Luke Cole, Xavier Valentine and Jackson Barling, with Lloyd Hayes adding 10 points from the tee.
The first half of this pulsating encounter was extremely tight with very little to choose between the sides, but it was the visitors who scored first when hooker Ben Gregory crashed over for a converted try after early pressure from the Sedgley pack paid dividends.
Rotherham quickly responded however and grabbed their first score when the ball was fed out to winger Mitchell Lacey-Babalola who squeezed over in the corner under pressure. The conversion from Lloyd Hayes was pushed across the posts by the ever-increasing wind.
Park stretched their lead midway through the half with an Ollie Glasse penalty after Titans managed to repel some stern pressure from the visitors.
Again, Rotherham were quick to respond when just five minutes later Lloyd Hayes slipped a lovely inside pass to John Okafor who galloped in from 25 metres. Hayes’ conversion gave the home side a 12-10 lead which they took into the break.
The second half was as fiercely contested as the first and again it was Sedgley who scored first when on 55 minutes veteran winger Andy Riley ran in for an unconverted try to reclaim the lead for his side.
With 20 minutes remaining you could feel the tension around Clifton Lane as Rotherham went in search of a win which would keep them top of the table.
In an extraordinary final quarter, Rotherham ran in four unanswered converted tries!
First up centre Travis Gordon burst the line to crash over from close range after receiving a sharp pass from JB Bruzulier.
Next up came Luke Cole who picked up from the base of a ruck, before showing great desire to barge his way over.
Shortly after replacement prop Xavier Valentine scored a similar try when he too demonstrated good strength and desire to score under pressure.
The final try came late on when winer Jackson Barling once again displayed enormous strength to bulldoze his way over after knocking defenders sideways in the process.
The victory keeps Titans at the top of National 1, but they will quickly regroup and prepare accordingly for the big Yorkshire derby against Leeds Tykes at Headingley Stadium.
Speaking after the game Titans Harvey Biljon reflected:
“There is no doubt we were in a battle; we had to fight against the elements in the first half, the wind was probably stronger than we’d anticipated and don’t underestimate what Sedgley Park brought today.
“They were clearly up for it, you could see that through the warm-up with their body language, they were sharpening their edges, and I wish them well next week in their derby game against Sale FC.
“From our players I was really pleased with how they stayed composed and stuck to task throughout.
“Sedgley Park are known for their attacking game and there were periods during the game when we didn’t have the ball and we had to put in long defensive sets and that really stood out for me and then almost every time we got into the zone we managed to come away with points.
“In the second half I could feel the momentum coming and that’s when a good team takes their opportunities when they come and that’s what we did today.”
Titans: Lacey-Babalola (T), Okafor (T), Gordon (T), Cole (T), Valentine (T), Barling (T), Hayes (5C)
Sedgley Park: Gregory (T), Andy Riley (T), Glasse (1P, 1C)
Yellow Card: Bradley (Sedgley Park)
Referee: Alan Chandrachud
Assistant Referees: George Ounsley & Richard Arthur
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola (Broad 46), 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 49), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 52), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 55), 4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 John Okafor, 6 Ellis Thomas, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin (Baldry 68).
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Jack Baldry, 20 Sinjin Broad.
Sedgley Park: 15 Josh Ree, 14 Rhys Henderson, 13 Sam Thorpe, 12 Nathan Pope, 11 Andy Riley, 10 Ollie Glasse, 9 Jacob Tansey (Sturgess 68), 1 John Blanchard (Downham 65), 2 Ben Gregory (Mallinson 68), 3 Beltus Nonleh (Rylance 49), 4 Bob Birtwell, 5 Billy Addy (Deans 70), 6 Connor James (Capt.), 7 Lewis Bradley, 8 Isaac Deans (Will Riley 49).
Replacements: 16 Austin Downham, 17 Adam Mallinson, 18 Danny Rylance, 19 Will Riley, 20 Matt Sturgess.
