Rotherham Titans started their National 1 campaign in style with an impressive 43-28 bonus-point win over a very good Sale FC side, on a sunny afternoon at Heywood Road.
Titans outscored their hosts by 6 tries to 4 with dot downs from Morgan Veness, Jackson Barling, JB Bruzulier, Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, Isaac Shaw and John Okafor, with Lloyd Hayes adding 13 points from the tee.
Titans stunned the hosts with an explosive start that saw them score 4 tries inside the opening half hour.
Morgan Veness peeled off a driving maul to bulldoze his way over for the first as early as the fourth minute.
Jackson Barling was on hand to scoop up a wayward pass from Sale’s Will Addison before strolling in from 30 metres.
Titans third came from scrum half JB Bruzulier; the experienced half back was alert enough to dive over under pressure from close range, following a period of forward domination.
The bonus point try came soon afterwards when a long miss-pass was gathered up nicely by Mitchell Lacey-Babalola to dart home.
Lloyd Hayes sent over a penalty just after the half hour mark to send his side into a 29-0 lead.
A better opening 30 minutes to the season could not have been dreamed of.
However, in National 1 and away from home there really is no easy games, and a side such as Sale FC were always going to have their say on the game.
On the stroke of half time Sale gave themselves a boost when Josh Brown scrambled over following a series of pick and goes.
The hosts emerged at the restart with a renewed energy, and they immediately secured their second score when hooker Nathan Langdon capitalised on a Titans error at the line out close to the line.
The Rotherham nerves may have started to jangle when on 55 minutes Sale went over for their third try through winger Nev Edwards after they ran the ball back from a clearance kick.
That score reduced Sale’s deficit to 29-21 with 25 minutes left in the game and the home crowd sense a sensational comeback was on the cards.
Rotherham however showed great maturity as they weathered the Sale storm, before eventually breaking the home sides resistance with two further tries.
Titans pack began to get back on top and a series of drives took them up to the line before the ball was flung out to full back Isaac Shaw who nipped in for a nice score.
Titans sealed the game in style when they ran a kick back from just outside their 22. The ball arrived with JB Bruzulier who raced down the right before drawing the last man and finding John Okafor in support. The big second rower galloped in to touch down with a theatrical swallow dive.
In stoppage time Sale deservedly collected a losing bonus point for their efforts when replacement back Sean Street finished off a nice break from the hosts.
What a game it was to start the new campaign!
Rotherham would have been delighted to have put in such an impressive performance and to have picked up 5 points on the road.
They will now look to reset and prepare for what will be another huge game when Leeds Tykes visit Clifton Lane on Saturday in what is always a tense and tight Yorkshire derby.
Speaking after their victory Harvey Biljon reflected:
“It’s great to get the monkey off our back; we’ve gone and beaten Sale at Sale which we’ve never done before.
“Sale are a very tough team, they were physical, and you could see the step up from our pre-season games in terms of the physicality; they won the scoreboard either side of half time and that always puts you under pressure.
“From our squad, if you look at the script, we went off in that first half and I was really impressed with how we controlled ourselves, but we need to make sure we don’t invite pressure.
“I think there was a couple of times where we almost thought the game was won and Sale showed how good they were and how tough it is in this league that teams will come back at you.
“So, we just need to make sure we execute our skill, we stay on top of our gameplan, and we stick to task.
“I was pleased however with our problem solving; we lost our second row pairing of Frankie Gascoigne and Harry Gilson-Fox and then we had a yellow card.
“We had to problem solve through those 10 minutes and I was impressed with how we did that, and I just think the impact from the bench was outstanding, everyone contributed today.”
Titans: Veness (T), Barling (T), JB Bruzulier (T), Lacey-Babalola (T), Shaw (T), Okafor (T), Hayes (5C, 1P)
Sale FC: Brown (T), Langdon (T), Edwards (T), Street (T), Addison (4C)
Yellow Card: Bustin (Titans), Parker & Dixon (Sale FC)
Attendance: 720
Referee: Dan Rowlands
Assistant Referees: Ian Farrell & Simon Park
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 11 Sinjin Broad, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 62), 2 Morgan Veness (Cole 36), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 60), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Bustin 48), 5 Harry Gilson-Fox (Newborn 70), 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn © (Gordon 60), 8 Ellis Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Travis Gordon, 20 Callum Bustin.
Sale FC: 15 Tom Brady, 14 Nev Edwards, 13 Will Addison, 12 Fergus Mulchrone, 11 Mark Dixon (Ford 35), 10 Will Davies (Wilson 11), 9 Joe Green, 1 Ben Carlisle (Birchall 48), 2 Nathan Langdon, 3 Ciaran Parker (Dixon 40), 4 Evan Mintern, 5 Pete Vickers (Perkins 70), 6 Andrew Hughes (Capt.), 7 Josh Brown, 8 Stone Priestley-Nangle (Street 62).
Replacements: 16 Dan Birchall, 17 Callum Ford, 18 George Perkins, 19 Toby Wilson, 20 Sean Street.
