Rotherham Titans putt in an outstanding performance to beat a very good Tonbridge Juddians side 41-21 on a soft surface at The Slade.
Rotherham were made to graft hard by a spirited Tonbridge outfit and after trailing narrowly at the interval, the Yorkshire side stormed back to run out worthy winners.
The first half however was full of tribulation for Rotherham despite racing into an early lead when winger Mitchell Lacey-Babalola showed good footwork to score near the posts.
Juddians responded when centre Lewis Gjaltema crossed before Titans went back ahead through a Luke Cole dot down from the tail of a maul.
Disaster then struck for the Titans when in the space of 4 minutes they lost 2 players to the sin bin. Harry Newborn and John Okafor were given 10 minutes on the sidelines for their indiscretions.
During this spell and whilst down to 13 players Tonbridge made the most of their numerical advantage as they added two scores from hooker Will Hollins and second rower Alfie Scopes to lead 21-12.
Crucially, just before the break Rotherham steadied the ship when JB Bruzulier found Isaac Shaw with a lovely miss pass which saw the full back skilfully pluck the ball out of the air to score in the corner.
The second half, whilst still hugely competitive, saw Rotherham keep the hosts scoreless as they went on to add a further 3 tries.
The first of which came inside 2 minutes of the restart when scrum half JB Bruzulier found a gap to squeeze over.
This was followed by a Lloyd Hayes penalty before Isaac Shaw broke away down the right wing to cut back inside and dot down under the posts.
The final score came courtesy of the Rotherham pack when a powerful driving maul was finished off by Morgan Veness.
The win keeps Rotherham at the top with a slender one-point advantage over Plymouth Albion and the focus will now quickly shift to the visit of Birmingham Moseley to Clifton Lane on Saturday.
Reflecting after the game Titans Harvey Biljon said:
“To come away from home and pick up another five points is huge.
“We faced a fair bit of adversity; we picked up two injuries and had to problem solve and then because of that we probably took a little bit of time to get settled and unfortunately our discipline waivered through those moments.
“However, during those tough moments and even when we were down to 13 men we stuck at it.
“Then the way the players responded in the second half, having taken on the messages at half time, to go out and deliver what we wanted was exceptional.
“Tonbridge kept playing and fair play to them for that, they put us under pressure, and they did get their line breaks. I’m not sure what the stats will say in terms of possession because we had to defend for large parts of the game.
“However, the effort and the energy to get back and defend and really have pride in your goal line was excellent. The set piece went well, and we worked hard without the ball; the enthusiasm was outstanding and as a group they are really stepping up.”
Titans: Shaw (2T), Lacey-Babalola (T), Cole (T), Bruzulier (T), Veness (T), Hayes (1P, 4C)
Tonbridge Juddians: Gjaltema (T), Holling (T), Scopes (T), Lloyd (3C)
Yellow Card: Newborn & Okafor (Titans), Osgood (Tonbridge)
Referee: George Ounsley
Assistant Referees: Michael Maple & Paul Clayton
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling (Broad 30), 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 63), 2 Luke Cole (Veness 50), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 55), 4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 Jack Baldry, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin (Okafor 23).
Replacements: 16 Morgan Veness, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 John Okafor, 20 Sinjin Broad.
Tonbridge Juddians: 15 Tom Mannix, 14 Tom Kendrick, 13 Shadyn Osgood, 12 Lewis Gjaltema, 11 Curtis Barnes, 10 Sam Evans (Sims 55), 9 Connor Lloyd, 1 Luke Boon (Watson 76), 2 Will Holling (Vajner 64), 3 Bobby Bratton, 4 Ben Harrison (Powell 70), 5 Alfie Scopes, 6 Vince Everitt (Smith 55), 7 Tommy Nicoll (Capt.) (Everitt 63), 8 Lucas Brooke.
Replacements: 16 Joe Vajner, 17 Josh Watson, 18 Elliott Powell, 19 Harrison Sims, 20 Jay Smith.
