Rotherham Titans are back at home this week where they’ll take on Dings Crusaders in round 19 of National 1; kick-off at Clifton Lane on Saturday is 2pm.
Rotherham will go into the game on the back of an outstanding result and performance against Clifton where they ran out 54-0 winners; a result which moved them to the top of the table, just a point ahead of Plymouth Albion.
The bonus point victory was particularly impressive when you take into consideration the soft conditions in which the game was played; those types of conditions can often result in a low-scoring affair.
However, Rotherham refused to follow the script as they ran in 8 unanswered tries with James Norman and Morgan Veness grabbing a brace, whilst Isaac Shaw, Zach Toerien, Will Metcalfe and Callum Bustin also crossed; the latter’s score set a new club try-scoring record of 52.
If Rotherham are to maintain their position at the summit however, they will need to find a result against a Dings side that beat them in the reverse fixture back in October.
In the game at Shaftesbury Park Dings flew out of the blocks and raced into an early lead which they never looked like relinquishing. Indeed, they outscored the Titans by 8 tries to 5 in 50-31 victory, which was fully deserved on the day.
With the Crusaders connection to Premiership side Bristol and the number of dual-registered players that can be made available at times, it can be tricky to predict what team will take to the field. However, Rotherham will have prepared to face the very best version of Dings.
Dings this term have had an inconsistent set of results; however, in addition to them beating Titans they have also beaten top side Rams and have done the ‘double’ over Birmingham Moseley and as such they’ll not be underestimated by the South Yorkshire side.
Going into the match Rotherham have made four changes to their starting XV, with two coming in the backs and two in the forwards.
In the front row hooker Morgan Veness will be flanked by Zach Toerien at loosehead prop with Tom Bairstow coming in for Xavier Valentine at tighthead.
In second row Frankie Gascoigne links-up with Curran Maguire who moves from blindside to replace Harry Gilson-Fox, whilst in the back row John Okafor comes in at blindside, with Jack Baldry at openside and Callum Bustin at number 8.
The backline sees a new half back combination with JB Bruzulier coming in for Will Metcalfe at scrum half and Harris Rutherford coming in for Rob Povey at fly half. Rutherford has been training with the Titans for a number of weeks and has impressed after joining the club from Gala in Scotland.
Lloyd Hayes and Travis Gordon maintain their partnership in midfield.
Whilst across the back three James Norman is on the right wing, with Mitchell Lacey-Babalola on the left wing, and Isaac Shaw at full back.
Looking ahead to the game Titans backs coach Alex Stajka said:
“The players put in an outstanding performance against Clifton both in attack and defence given the lead-up to the game and the conditions. During the week we had to think outside the box with training and the boys bought into it really well. We had a pretty clear plan going into the game and the players stuck to it and they delivered a 54-0 win which we were obviously delighted with.
“When you play on a heavy pitch there are concerns of how that can be a leveller, but we had a gameplan with those conditions in mind and it was important we stuck to it and that’s exactly what the boys did. We knew by doing that opportunities would be created and then it would just be a case of making the most of them.
“People have commented about us being top of the league on the back of that result, but it doesn’t mean anything at this stage. All we are concentrating on is getting the best out of each training session to give ourselves a chance of putting in a performance on a Saturday.
“That’s been the same this week and whilst we’ve suffered more disruption we’ve only focused on getting the most out of each session to prepare for Dings. We don’t know what sort of team Dings are going to put out, but as far as we are concerned, we just need to prep for a team as good as the one we played earlier in the season.
“Dings were the better team on the day, they came out of the blocks firing, and we were 19-0 down inside 12 minutes! We can come up with plenty of excuses and reasons that we lost that game, but ultimately the game is played for 80 minutes on the pitch, and we just weren’t good enough on the day.
“If we’re going to have a positive outcome this time, we must manage the game better than we did down there, because we didn’t do a good enough job on their quick 3G pitch. However, our pitch is very different to that; we’ll have a gameplan to combat the opposition and the conditions and we’ll just need to execute that and do what we do.”
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 James Norman, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon (Capt.), 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Harris Rutherford, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Zach Toerien, 2 Morgan Veness, 3 Tom Bairstow, 4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 Curran Maguire, 6 John Okafor, 7 Jack Baldry, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Alastair Donkor, 18 Andrew Foster, 19 Harry Newborn, 20 Sinjin Broad.
