Bristol (37) vs Rotherham Titans (3) - Championship
Pre-Match Report
Titans make wholesale changes for Bristol
Titans coach Andre Bester has made eleven changes to his starting fifteen, with four of those being positional.
In the backline making his debut for the Titans is scrum half Dale Farnham, who joined Rotherham this week from Plymouth Albion. Dave McCall and Ed Tellwright return to starting berths on the wings, whilst Peter Homan and Elliot Brierley are given the opportunity to impress as a new combination in the centres.
A whole new front row sees Ben Harris, Ted Stagg and Ben Hooper given the nod and there’s good news for Neale Patrick as he returns in the second row, after almost 4 months out, having suffered a neck injury at Nottingham at the beginning of October. Patrick started the first five Championship games of the season and his return is sure to stiffen competition within that area of the squad.
The overall head to head between the clubs sees nothing between them as both sides have won six apiece; whilst Rotherham’s most memorable victory over Bristol came in Round 6 of the Powergen Cup in 2002. Rotherham visited the then Premiership side and upset all the odds with a 24-19 victory over the men from the West Country.
This season’s 44-6 victory over Bristol at Clifton Lane will no doubt also live long in the memory too. Indeed, to illustrate the Titans strength in depth, only three players are retained in their position from that outstanding 44-6 performance.
Looking ahead to the contest Andre Bester said, “We have everyone at the club fit and available and we will use this opportunity to rotate heavily and give some guys their chance. Bristol will present us with a great challenge and we have nothing to lose as we aim to continue to develop our squad and these guys will travel to Bristol with no fear.
“I would have liked to have given other players a bit of a break also and we were in negotiations with Leicester to bring in Lee Robinson. However, at the 11th hour Wasps came in and Lee decided to take that option instead. So we will work with the squad we have and aim to be competitive at play-off time.”
Titans: 15 Tom Foden, 14 Dave McCall, 13 Elliot Brierley, 12 Peter Homan, 11 Ed Tellwright, 10 Cliffie Hodgson, 9 Dale Farnham, 1 Ben Harris, 2 Ted Stagg, 3 Ben Hooper, 4 Neale Patrick, 5 Adrian Griffiths, 6 Barney Maddison, 7 Carl Kirwan, 8 Sam Dickinson (Capt.).
Replacements: 16 Dan Baines, 17 Jamie Kilbane, 18 Rob O’Donnell, 19 Talite Vaioleti, 20 Sean Dougall, 21 Pale Nonu, 22 Garry Law.
Match Report
Titans suffer defeat in South West
Travelling to The Memorial Stadium to play league leaders Bristol is never an easy task and after Titans coach Andre Bester selected a side in order to give fringe players an opportunity, the challenge became far greater. The final score of 37-3, although a little flattering to the hosts, was therefore not that surprising.
Trailing 13-0 at the break, following tries by William Helu and Fautua Otto and a penalty from Tristan Roberts, Titans had suggested they may yet give the league leaders a thorough examination, particularly after a Cliffie Hodgson penalty reduced the arrears early into the second half.
Indeed, as the hour mark approached only a second Tristan Roberts penalty was added by the hosts. However, the final twenty minutes of the match saw Bristol play some neat rugby and go over for another three converted tries from James Merriman, Ross Johnston and Jack Tovey to give the hosts a deserved victory.
Despite the loss, Titans boss Andre Bester was relatively upbeat in his assessment of the match, “We always knew this was going to be a match where our backs were going to be against the wall. We flung these young inexperience boys together and this is a place where they are going to learn a lot.”
Bester continued, “The question is who took the most out of this match? Do they know where they are? Or do we have a bunch of players who now have some invaluable experience that they didn’t have previously? Will these players get better after this experience? To me, this was a brilliant exercise in our management of our players and to move them forward.
“They were times out there where we looked very good; but there were times when you could see that we lacked cohesion. We had a new half back combination; we had a new centre combination, a new back three combination, a new front row combination and a new back row combination. As a result we knew it was going to be very difficult. Having said that, a lot of the scores against us were self inflicted.
“We know what we are trying to do and we know we are going somewhere and I was very happy with it today.
“We did struggle a bit a line out time with our new combinations, but I thought our scrum did brilliantly well for a pack that has just been flung together, our scrum was on top. We did lack cohesion and direction in attack, but you can understand that with the boys that have been flung together. Overall though, I think there are plenty of positives to come out of the match and every one of the boys did themselves proud today.”
Referee: Darren Gamage
Attendance: 4,822
Titans: Hodgson (1P).
Bristol: Tovey (T), Otto (T), Helu (T), Johnston (T), Merriman (T), Roberts (2P,2C), James (1C).
Titans: 15 Tom Foden, 14 Dave McCall, 13 Elliot Brierley, 12 Peter Homan, 11 Ed Tellwright, 10 Cliffie Hodgson, 9 Dale Farnham, 1 Ben Harris, 2 Ted Stagg, 3 Ben Hooper, 4 Neale Patrick (Talite Vaioleti 68), 5 Adrian Griffiths, 6 Barney Maddison, 7 Carl Kirwan, 8 Sam Dickinson (Capt).
Replacements: 16 Dan Baines, 17 Jamie Kilbane, 18 Rob O’Donnell, 19 Talite Vaioleti, 20 Sean Dougall, 21 Pale Nonu, 22 Garry Law.
Bristol: 15 Jon Goodridge, 14 George Watkins, 13 Fautua Otto, 12 Will Helu, 11 Jack Tovey, 10 Tristan Roberts (Matty James 74), 9 Ruki Tipuna (Tom Slater 74), 1 Mark Irish (Darren Crompton 61), 2 Ross Johnston, 3 Jason Hobson (Wayne Thompson 61), 4 Glen Townson (Mariano Sambucetti 57), 5 Roy Winters, 6 Josh Ovens, 7 James Merriman (Capt.), 8 Marco Mama (Henry Vanderglas 57).
Replacements: 16 Rhys Lawrence, 17 Darren Crompton, 18 Wayne Thompson, 19 Mariano Sambucetti, 20 Henry Vanderglas, 21 Tom Slater, 22 Matty James.
