Rotherham Titans put in a determined and physical performance to beat local rivals Sheffield 32-14 on a mild afternoon at Clifton Lane.
Rotherham secured the bonus point and outscored the Abbeydale outfit by 5 tries to 2, with dot downs coming from Callum Bustin, JB Bruzulier, Tomasi Tanumi and a brace from Harry Newborn, with Lloyd Hayes adding 7 points from tee.
In this feisty top-of-the-table clash, second placed Rotherham were made to work hard by third placed Sheffield, particularly so in the opening 10 minutes when the visitors took the lead through the division’s leading try scorer Elliot Fisher who finished off nicely following a break from Ryan Burrows.
However, from that point on Rotherham worked themselves into the contest and slowly took charge of affairs.
The home side levelled matters on 26 minutes when Callum Bustin received a smart pass from Loma Kivalu to break through and score under the posts.
Lloyd Hayes converted and then shortly afterwards nosed Titans ahead with a penalty.
With confidence boosted from their success Rotherham stepped up the intensity to score two more tries before the break.
First up, a powerful driving maul from a line out saw Harry Newborn finish off from the tail and then a quick-thinking JB Bruzulier spotted a gap from the base of a ruck to dive over.
Rotherham should probably have secured the bonus point try before the break; unfortunately for them a lack of accuracy meant this would have to wait.
That wait wasn’t a long one. Inside 2 minutes of the restart the bonus point was bagged when Tomasi Tanumi showed great desire to crash over in the corner following a good break from Jack Townend.
Just after the hour mark the match was closed out as a contest when Rotherham scored their fifth try of the game.
This came from man-of-the-match Harry Newborn, who once again was on hand to dot down from the tail of a powerful maul.
To be fair to Sheffield they never stopped trying and inside the final 10 minutes they picked up a second try through former Titan Ryan Burrows, who showed good awareness to break from a free kick.
Nevertheless, Rotherham comfortably saw out the game to register an important win against a good side and maintain their interest at the top end of the table.
The focus will now switch to the Otley game on Saturday and to making sure the preparations are right for that one.
Speaking after the match Titans Harvey Biljon reflected:
“At times today we performed really well; we came through a tricky first 10 minutes where I think we lost our way and then we really asserted our dominance from that point on.
“We were a bit frustrated we didn’t come away with another score just before half time, but straight off the bat in the second half we did well to take advantage to get the bonus point try.
“We’ve got to go away and look at how we manage the game with the yellow card, but then to see out the game out the way we did against an emotionally charged Sheffield team, I think the players did really well.
“We just want to focus on improving each week and that’s what this team is doing. Each week they are putting in better performances and that’s what we need to keep on doing.
“Our defensive sets were outstanding; it’s an area we’ve been working really hard on. I’m happy with the overall performance, we got the five points and we can go away and be proud of that.”
Referee: Jack Moorhouse
Attendance: 250
Yellow Card: Parsons (Sheffield) Denman (Titans)
Titans: Newborn (2T), Bustin (T), Bruzulier (T), Tanumi (T), Hayes (2C, P)
Sheffield: Burrows (T), Fisher (T, 2C)
Titans: 15 Jack Townend, 14 Tomasi Tanumi, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Dan Rundle (Kivalu 47) (Rundle 55) (Metcalfe 61), 10 Will Milner, 9 JB Bruzulier (Rundle 77), 1 Charlie Capps (Capt.), 2 Luke Cole (Bergmanas 47), 3 Loma Kivalu (Denman 30), 19 John Okafor, 5 Matt Smith (Allan 61), 24 Marcus Payne (Cowen-Leak 37), 25 Harry Newborn (Payne 77), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 30 Gareth Denman, 18 Laurence Cowen-Leak, 26 Lewis Allan, 20 Will Metcalfe.
Sheffield: 15 Ieuan Cooke, 14 James Flint (Flinders 39) (Flint 47) (Hughes 68), 13 Will Smith, 12 Kaj Douglas, 16 Christian Hooper, 10 Callum Posa (West 67), 9 Elliot Fisher, 1 Ben Whitney, 2 Rhodri Campbell, 22 Jake Hicklin (Rogers 58), 4 Archie Crapper (Flinders 58), 5 Dom Parsons (Capt.), 6 Rob Fawdry, 7 Jason Hignell (Adcock 55), 8 Ryan Burrows.
Replacements: 3 George Rogers, 24 Angus Hughes, 23 Charlie Flinders, 21 Matt Adcock, 20 Jonny West.
Photo Credit: Gareth Lyons