Rotherham Titans continued their fine early season form with a stunning 52-12 win over Yorkshire rivals Leeds Tykes on a bright afternoon at Clifton Lane.
Both sides gave everything in a pulsating National 1 derby clash that was full of skill, intensity and physicality.
However, it was the South Yorkshire outfit that eventually overpowered the visitors to run in 8 tries to 2 and maintain their perfect start to the season.
The first half in particular was a keenly fought affair that saw Rotherham take an early lead through fly half Rob Povey after he showed good awareness to squeeze over after 4 just minutes.
Leeds however were up for the battle as they looked to match Rotherham’s physicality and they showed ambition with ball in hand. This in turn led to them nudging ahead on 16 minutes when winger Sam Taylor rounded the Titans defence for a converted try.
Rotherham responded quickly to reestablish their advantage with first hooker Morgan Veness dotting down from the tail of a powerful maul, followed by second rower Curran Maguire being on hand to go over after some fine work by Rob Povey.
The first half played out with no further scores, but it wasn’t for the lack of effort from two sides looking to dominate whenever possible.
After the interval Rotherham ramped up the intensity which resulted in a dominant display that saw them score a further 5 tries.
John Okafor was on hand to make the most of an interception from a back-peddling Leeds scrum on 44 minutes.
Centre Lloyd Hayes was next on the scoresheet when he unexpectedly sniped over from the base of a ruck!
Replacement hooker Luke Cole scored Titans sixth try when he dabbed down from the tail of another powerful drive.
Rotherham’s penultimate try was a lovely one; second rower Curran Maguire threw a long pass infield to full back Isaac Shaw, who proceeded to glide through the Leeds defence from 40 metres out to score near the corner.
The eighth and final try for Rotherham came from turnover ball on their own 22. The ball arrived with Will Metcalfe who showed great pace to gallop 80 metres downfield to score under the posts.
Although Leeds scored a consolation try in injury time with the last play from skipper Adam Brown, it didn’t take the shine off what was an outstanding display from the hosts.
The Titans must be pleased with their start to the new season having won both games with bonus points and scoring 14 tries.
They will now refocus on their preparation ahead of their next task away to league newcomers Clifton next week at Station Road.
Speaking after the game Titans Harvey Biljon reflected:
“Never underestimate a Yorkshire derby; you look at the scoreline but don’t underestimate how much that would have taken out of our players.
“I’m impressed with the way the players trained this week and with the way they stayed focused though the game. It was a testament to our whole squad; we had a few changes from last week and I’m really pleased to come away with the win.
“There’s a couple of areas that stand out for me; I think the way we are defending is an area where we can take some confidence.
“There’s a real shared responsibility across the forwards and backs that’s coming through in how we play and in the first half, we only got into their tryline area 6 times, but we came away with 3 scores. We also felt we needed to address our discipline, because that was inviting pressure and to be fair, I thought Leeds played well in the first half.
“In the second half I think our territory and possession told, which meant they had to probably change what they were trying to achieve, and we were able to take advantage of any unforced errors.
“However, we’ll not get too caught up in that because we are going to have another big challenge next week at Clifton.”
Titans: Povey (T), Veness (T), Maguire (T), Okafor (T), Cole (T), Shaw (T), Metcalfe (T), Hayes (T, 6C)
Leeds Tykes: Taylor (T), A. Brown (T), Crossland (2C)
Yellow Card: None
Attendance: 250
Referee: Ben Simpson
Assistant Referees: Ian Farrell & Brendan Fitzmaurice
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Metcalfe 73), 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 58), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 57), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 57), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Hastie 65), 5 Curran Maguire, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Fraser Hastie, 20 Will Metcalfe.
Leeds Tykes: 15 Charlie Venables (Macnab 59), 14 Will Yates, 13 Ben Dixon, 12 Tom Wiliams, 11 Sam Taylor, 10 Eddie Crossland, 9 Ewan Laughton, 1 Toby Williams (Pleasants 73), 2 Adam Brown (Capt.), 3 Will Dennis (Cordice 57), 4 Louis Guthrie, 5 Tom Collins, 6 Lucas Walsh (E. Brown 47), 7 Connor Walker (Smith 29) (Walker 78), 8 Jonny Teague.
Replacements: 16 Alex Pleasants, 17 Jordan Cordice, 18 Will Smith, 19 Eddie Brown, 20 Henry Macnab.
