Rotherham Titans are back at home on Saturday for the first time in 7-weeks when they take on East Midlands outfit Leicester Lions in round 17 of National 1; kick-off at Clifton Lane is 2pm.
Due to the winter break and the Clifton match being postponed, this will be the first game at Clifton Lane since Titans beat Sedgley Park 40-15 on December 17th, and the South Yorkshire side will hope plenty of supporters turn out for their first home clash of 2026.
Rotherham will go into the game on the back of an impressive performance last time out at Bishop’s Stortford, where 8 tries were shared in a Nat 1 thriller which saw Titans run out 35-27 winners.
The game, as always against Stortford, was a tense and close affair, with a dominant Titans pack laying the foundations for an important win.
Leicester Lions will come into the game after what has been a challenging season to date. Lions currently occupy bottom spot in the league, but they will be eager to lift themselves up the table.
Leicester are not to be overlooked however, as the wins they have chalked up so far have been notable, a home win over Sale FC and an away victory over Leeds Tykes shows on their day they can be a real handful for any team.
The sides have met on three previous occasions with the Titans coming out on top each time, but all three games were highly competitive, with the outcome not settled until late in the game.
Going into the match Rotherham have made five changes to their starting XV, with two coming in the backs and three in the forwards.
In the front row hooker Luke Cole comes in for Morgan Veness and he’ll be flanked by Zach Toerien who comes in for Alastair Donkor at loosehead prop with Xavier Valentine coming in for Andrew Foster at tighthead.
In second row Frankie Gascoigne links-up again with Harry Gilson-Fox, whilst an unchanged back row sees John Okafor at blindside, with skipper Harry Newborn on the openside and Jack Baldry at number 8.
The backline sees scrum half Sinjin Broad come in for JB Bruzulier, and he’ll link up with fly half Rob Povey in the half back positions.
Lloyd Hayes and Travis Gordon maintain their partnership in midfield.
Whilst across the back three James Norman comes in on the left wing for Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, with Jackson Barling on the right wing, and Isaac Shaw at full back.
Looking ahead to the game Titans Backs Coach, Alex Stajka, said:
“Going into the Bishop’s Stortford game we were presented with some challenges. I think first and foremost we needed to make sure we were ready as a group, having not played for a month. With the Clifton game being postponed it meant we had to get the boys physically and mentally ready to take on a Bishop’s team that were well prepared having played Plymouth the week before.
“Our boys did train well, and they were ready to go; I think the first half went almost perfect for us in terms of execution of the game plan. We were very system driven, we just worked our way up the pitch gaining penalties, we kicked points and took our opportunities when they were presented; so, we were pleased with that.
“We knew at half time, although leading 23-10 there was still plenty of work to do. We wanted to keep it simple, play in their half and take it to set piece, because we knew we were dominant there, we were winning penalties and we were disrupting their ball.
“We tried to do that; they wanted to run the ball which was evident from the first couple of minutes and then we had a couple of misreads in defence and they got a couple of early scores in the second half which made it fairly tight. But at no point did I feel that we weren’t in control of the game.
“I thought we just needed to get back on task to see the game through and that’s what we did, and we were delighted in the end to get the bonus point win.
“It will be tough again this week; Leicester Lions are a physical side who have a really good attacking shape. They got off to a flyer against Plymouth, and we’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen against us; we don’t want them getting their tails up. They’re a dangerous team if you give them a sniff; they also stay in the fight, they’re not a team that will go away or break, they’ll fight and scrap for everything.
“I think what we’ve learnt the hard way is league position in National 1 makes absolutely no impact on the actual game. The players have to make sure they’re up for it and as coaches, we have to make sure we do that and prepare the boys for a big physical test that’s coming our way. Make no mistake, if we don’t show up we’ll be in for a big surprise and we don’t want that, we don’t want a repeat of Leeds.
“We have a game plan in place; we’ll stick to our processes and bring some physicality. We know teams don’t like coming to Rotherham, that’s perfect for us and we just need to give them a warm Rotherham welcome on the field.
“Clifton Lane is a different place, it’s a real rugby club with awesome supporters and it makes a huge difference on game day. You can see when the lads are warming up on the pitch and the crowd is starting to build, there’s a different vibe amongst the players and it does make a difference and I’m looking forward to it.”
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon, 11 James Norman, 10 Rob Povey, 9 Sinjin Broad, 1 Zach Toerien, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Xavier Valentine, 4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Jack Baldry.
Replacements: 16 Jamie Major, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Tom Bairstow, 19 Curran Maguire, 20 JB Bruzulier.
