Rotherham Titans crashed to a 19-18 defeat away at Leeds Tykes on a cool afternoon at Headingley Stadium.
The West Yorkshire side outscored Titans by 3 tries to 2 with their dot downs coming from dual-registered Sale Sharks wingers Albert Bradshaw (2) and one for Nathan Greenwood.
Titans two tries came from Luke Cole and Callum Bustin, with Lloyd Hayes adding 8 points from the tee.
Despite the disappointing loss Rotherham remain at the top of the league going into the 2-week Christmas break.
The defeat once again demonstrates how there are no easy games in National 1 and no doubt Titans will now enjoy their break before coming back stronger in the second half of the season.
Rotherham were put under an enormous amount of pressure in the opening 30 minutes of first half, but somehow through a heroic defensive display they managed to keep Leeds out.
Titans would have been disappointed then after all their efforts, to allow Tykes in following a couple of errors which saw scrum half Ewan Laughton put in a nice grubber kick for Sale Sharks dual-registered flying winger Albert Bradshaw to score.
Rotherham got on the board shortly after when Lloyd Hayes knocked over a penalty, but from the restart Leeds went in for their second try when a mix up in the Titans defence allowed Bradshaw in for the easiest of tries. Turagabeci impressed with the touchline conversion.
Just before half time Rotherham scored their first try when Luke Cole managed to get the ball down after a massive drive from the Titans pack. Hayes narrowly missed with the extras.
Just four minutes into the second half and Rotherham reduced their arrears to a single point when Hayes added his second penalty of the game.
The momentum had now shifted, and Rotherham were starting to enjoy more possession and territory.
They converted this pressure into points and the lead when number 8 Callum Bustin took a quick tap-penalty and barged his way over the line for a converted try.
Titans now looked to stretch their advantage and indeed had opportunities to position themselves into good areas on the pitch; unfortunately for them those opportunities were missed.
Credit must be given to Leeds however as their desire never wilted and eleven minutes before time, they grabbed their third try through another Sale Sharks winger, Nathan Greenwood, who showed great pace to galop home for a converted try.
Rotherham did their best to overcome the 1-point deficit, but it wasn’t to be their day, and Leeds deservedly ran out the victors.
Commenting post-match Harvey Biljon said:
“We knew going in league positioning goes out of the window when you play in derby games and give credit to Leeds for the amount of enthusiasm they brought to the match.
“I think the players they brought in from the Premiership made a massive difference to them, whilst at the same time we knew those challenges were coming and we had to combat that.
“In the first half we weathered a huge amount of pressure; they scored two tries, both came from our mistakes, but we worked our way back into the game.
“In the second half we were just starting to get a foothold, we got the score and then we had an opportunity to get field position; unfortunately we missed out on a couple of those moments and that was the turning point, and they showed great enthusiasm through the back end of the game.
“If you put into context the injuries we’ve had through the pack and particularly in the second row area and the other changes throughout the team, I think we can be proud of where we are currently at, but we know there’s a lot more growth and a lot more to come.”
Titans: Cole (T), Bustin (T), Hayes (2P, 1C)
Leeds Tykes: Bradshaw (2T), Greenwood (T), Turagabeci (2C)
Referee: Jack Moorhouse
Assistant Referees: Ian Farrell & Jason Garrick
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Luckas Sableman-Blue, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Broad 80), 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 63), 2 Luke Cole (Veness 60), 3 Andrew Foster (Bairstow 73), 4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 John Okafor, 6 Ellis Thomas (Maguire 32), 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin (Cole 74).
Replacements: 16 Morgan Veness, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Tom Bairstow, 19 Curran Maguire, 20 Sinjin Broad.
Leeds Tykes: 15 Seremaia Bai Turagabeci, 14 Albert Bradshaw, 13 Charlie Venables, 12 Ben Dixon (Capt.) (Krippner 58), 11 Nathan Greenwood, 10 Eddie Crossland, 9 Ewan Laughton, 1 Alex Pleasants, 2 Aarin Yorke (Bailey 55), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Huw Davies (Walsh 47), 5 Dylan Hodkinson, 6 Connor Walker, 7 Jonny Teague, 8 Eddie Brown.
Replacements: 16 Ben Bailey, 17 Josh Hough, 18 Lucas Walsh, 19 Sebi Krippner, 20 Kit Keith.
Photo: Gareth Siddons