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.
