Rotherham Titans are back at home this weekend where they’ll take on old rivals Birmingham Moseley in round 21 of National 1; kick-off on Saturday at Clifton Lane is 2pm.
Titans will go into the game off the back of an outstanding performance and result against Tonbridge Juddians where they ran out 41-21 winners; a result which kept them top of the table, a point ahead of nearest challenges Plymouth Albion.
The bonus point win, Titans 15th of the season, was achieved in difficult conditions due to the recent wet weather; however, the South Yorkshire side responded well as they outscored Tonbridge by 6 tries to 3 with a brace of tries from Isaac Shaw and one each for Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, Luke Cole, JB Bruzulier and Morgan Veness.
Birmingham Moseley are in decent form too and they will come into the game with confidence having given Plymouth Albion a good run for their money last week, despite narrowly losing 27-20.
Furthermore, despite Moseley’s precarious league position, they could be considered unlucky as six of their defeats this term has been by 7 points or less.
Indeed, they have notched up some notable victories with wins over Blackheath and Rams and have imposed heavy defeats over Leeds Tykes and Clifton and have drawn with Tonbridge Juddians; clearly Moseley on their day are a match for anyone in the division.
Titans and Moseley are familiar foes, having contested 42 previous league meetings, with the overall head-to-head standing at 30-12 in Rotherham’s favour.
The first match between the sides came at Clifton Lane in 1996 where Rotherham ran out 18-9 winners, with one of their tries coming from former Irish international scrum half Guy Easterby, one of 20 he scored for the South Yorkshire side.
Going into this week’s game however, Titans have made two changes to their starting XV, with one coming in the backs and one in the forwards.
In the front row hooker Luke Cole will be flanked by Alastair Donkor at loosehead prop with Andrew Foster at tighthead.
In second row Frankie Gascoigne links-up with Harry Gilson-Fox, whilst in the back row Jack Baldry moves from blindside to number 8 for the injured Callum Bustin, with John Okafor coming in at blindside and skipper Harry Newborn on the openside.
The backline sees a half back combination of JB Bruzulier at scrum half and Rob Povey at fly half, whilst Lloyd Hayes and Travis Gordon maintain their partnership in midfield.
Whilst across the back three James Norman comes in on the right wing for the injured Jackson Barling, with Mitchell Lacey-Babalola on the left wing, and Isaac Shaw at full back.
Speaking ahead of the match Harvey Biljon said:
I think overall it was an outstanding performance against Tonbridge, especially when you consider we had less than forty percent possession and we were able to come away with 6 scores. That shows we really made use of field position when we got it.
On the flip side of that, if you look at our defence, it was a crucial component in us being able to take control back in the game because Tonbridge threw everything at us in the first half.
If you look at the tackle percentage, the tackle count and all those kinds of things, I think that showed real enthusiasm as well as character and attitude. I was immensely impressed with our defensive performance right up until the final whistle.
Tonbridge earnt their scores and they were good scores, but we didn’t let them in for a bonus point and we kept working hard. There were some real big moments where they deserved a couple of line breaks, and we had to work hard to get back and regain control.
So, to come away with the result against a team that’s beaten Rosslyn Park and Plymouth Albion, that was a pretty good outcome for us.
We’ll need to put in that kind of performance against Birmingham Moseley, because I have never played an easy game against them ever!
They lost narrowly last week against Plymouth, and you don’t push a top of the table team to 7 points unless you’re a good outfit and this is that moment where if you look at the league table, you’ll get yourself caught out.
This is a team that can beat anyone; it’s big, it’s powerful, it’s physical and it’s got some explosiveness in its backline and we’re going to have to be on it. The threats will come from across the board, they can be physical up front, they’ve got speed out wide and they are well balanced team throughout.
I’m looking forward to playing back at home in front of our own supporters, the way they get behind us is next level and it makes a big difference to the players. We thank them and we want to hear them make the noise again on Saturday.
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 James Norman, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier, 1 Alastair Donkor, 2 Luke Cole, 3 Andrew Foster, 4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry Newborn (Capt.), 8 Jack Baldry.
Replacements: 16 Morgan Veness, 17 Zach Toerien, 18 Xavier Valentine, 19 Curran Maguire, 20 Will Metcalfe.
