Rotherham Titans continued their winning ways with a hard-fought 33-7 victory over a big, physical Birmingham Moseley side on a wet afternoon at Clifton Lane.
No sooner had the referee blown his whistle to start the game, the heavens opened, meaning much of the first half was played in torrential rain.
Despite this however Rotherham started quickly and went ahead inside 5 minutes after a clever chip over the top from Lloyd Hayes was collected by him and then fed to John Okafor who made good ground before slipping a nice inside pass to centre Travis Gordon for a lovely score.
In no time at all Titans had their second try when a break downfield saw the Titans pack set up on the Moseley line before skipper Harry Newborn grabbed the ball to crash over from close range.
Rotherham had to wait for the third try as conditions worsened and Moseley battled hard to keep the South Yorkshire side at bay.
However, the wait was worth it as a set move from a scrum saw JB Bruzulier find Rob Povey who then slipped a neat inside pass to the onrushing winger James Norman who raced through to slide in next to the posts.
Just before half time Rotherham secured the bonus point, when fittingly on his 100th appearance for the club, hooker Luke Cole dotted down from the tail of a powerful maul. His team mates and the Clifton Lane crowd celebrated loudly his achievement!
The second half, although not a damp squib, did lack some of the intensity of the first 40; this was not due to a lack of effort, as both sides gave their all, it was more to do with the truly difficult winter conditions.
Indeed, we had to wait until the hour mark for the next score and when it came it came for the visitors.
Moseley’s big number 8 Ollie Stedman was the man to emerge from under a pile of bodies as he dotted down following a powerful drive from the Midlanders.
Rotherham did have the final say however when late on referee Daniel Rowlands awarded the home side a penalty try after persistent infringements from Moseley on their own line.
The win for Rotherham, coupled with Plymouth Albion’s home defeat to Blackheath, leaves the Yorkshire side at the top of the table with an extended lead of 5 points.
Speaking about the game afterwards, Titans Harvey Biljon said:
“That’s the end of a pretty tough seven weeks block; the boys deserve their week off. Coming up against Birmingham Moseley as last of the seven was always going to be a big test; they’re big, heavy team in attack.
“When we saw the heavens open at the start of the first half we thought “oh no, here we go,” but we had a great first half where we took most of our opportunities and we only let a couple of them slip.
“Then you could see how difficult it was coming into the second half; we were struggling to see our shirts through the mud.
But to come away with another 5-point win and with the boys in good spirits it will be nice for them to put their feet up for a week before we get back on it.”
Titans: Gordon (T), Newborn (T), Norman (T), Cole (T), Pen Try, Hayes (3C)
Birmingham Moseley: Stedman (T), Jolly (1C)
Yellow Card: Priest & Sam McNulty (Moseley)
Referee: Daniel Rowlands
Assistant Referees: Simon Park & Jono Sidwell-Keeton
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 James Norman, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Travis Gordon 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB Bruzulier (Metcalfe 55), 1 Alastair Donkor (Toerien 55), 2 Luke Cole (Veness 47), 3 Andrew Foster (Valentine 47), 4 Frankie Gascoigne (Maguire 45), 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.
Birmingham Moseley: 15 Freddie Painter (Bingham 24) (Painter 32), 14 Sam Clarke, 13 Elliott Creed, 12 Isaac McNulty (Egodo 60), 11 Aquile Smith, 10 Tommy Taylor, 9 Jack Jolly (Gipson 66), 1 Ethan Priest, 2 Ben Pogson (Sam McNulty 50), 3 David Langley, 4 Callum Allen, 5 Harry Butler (Pogson 62), 6 Will Safe (Mifsud 38), 7 Santiago Edwards, 8 Ollie Stedman (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Sam McNulty, 17 Nick Bingham, 18 Louis Mifsud, 19 Harry Gipson, 20 Tuoyo Egodo.
