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.
