Rotherham Titans (0) vs London Scottish (15) - Championship
Pre-Match Report
Injury niggles force Titans to make changes
With a large number of Titans carrying knocks and minor niggles; head coach Andre Bester believes it prudent not to risk further injury ahead of the crucial promotion play-offs. The changes have been split evenly between the backs and forwards, with Neale Patrick given the role of captain for the match.
Along the back line Ed Tellwright and Peter Homan come back in on the wings, whilst Byron Godfrey returns from a loan spell at Hull and starts at outside centre. Cliffie Hodgson is back in the number 10 shirt and Dale Farnham gets another opportunity to show off his talents at scrum half.
In the forwards Jamie Kilbane is back at loose head prop, with Adrian Griffiths returning from injury to recapture the number 5 shirt. A complete change to the back row sees duel registered Leicester Tigers Tom Armes start at blind side, Carl Kirwan comes back in at open side and the 8 jersey will be worn by Titans veteran Ben Wade.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s encounter Andre Bester explained, “London Scottish is important to us, it’s a home match and like every match we play, we go into it to try and win. We have prepared very well this week in anticipation of a tough Scottish challenge.
“However, we have lots of niggles that we are carrying in the squad following our physical encounter at Doncaster last week and therefore we are enforced to rotate heavily. It’s important that we don’t arrive at the play-offs with niggles and injuries.
“We know London Scottish are a good side, they have a very good set piece, they have the strongest scrum in the division and they have two absolutely brilliant tight head props. There’s no doubt that they will be up for the challenge and they won’t have any doubt that they can beat Rotherham at home.
“Our job is to make sure that does not happen and we believe that the side that has been selected is good enough to take the points if they play as well as we know they can.”
Titans: 15 Stephen Hamilton, 14 Ed Tellwright, 13 Byron Godfrey, 12 Pale Nonu, 11 Peter Homan, 10 Cliffie Hodgson, 9 Dale Farnham, 1 Jamie Kilbane, 2 Ted Stagg, 3 Rob O’Donnell, 4 Neale Patrick (Capt.), 5 Adrian Griffiths, 6 Tom Armes, 7 Carl Kirwan, 8 Ben Wade.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Francois Bester, 17 Ben Harris, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Talite Vaioleti, 20 Semisi Taulava, 21 Tom Foden, 22 Dave McCall.
Match Report
Titans target “Bigger Picture!”
In a disjointed affair with numerous errors, both in terms of execution and decision making, Rotherham were beaten by the better side on the day. Trailing at the break 0-10 to tries from Stuart Peel and Agustin Gosio, Titans emerged in the second period much the brighter.
In fact the home side almost cut their deficit in half just 2 minutes in, after replacement Dave McCall raced 50 metres through the Scottish defence, only to be tackled into touch a metre short of the try line. Encouraged by this Titans pressed and enjoyed a period of possession and territory in and around the visitors 22. However, on too many occasions handling errors cost them the initiative.
Scottish weathered the mini storm and came back strongly and on 64 minutes effectively killed off the game when Ryan Westren benefitted from turnover ball to race in on the left wing to touch down.
Titans endeavoured to get back into the contest and commitment wise could not be faulted. However, the visiting defence held firm and subjected Rotherham to just their tenth scoreless game in league history.
Post match Titans Andre Bester reflected, “We lacked cohesion, but that is not surprising because we just put those boys together. They got three very cheap tries, one was off a clear knock-on in the second half and the other two came about from us missing tackles. If you do that in this league you will get punished.
“Our biggest problem though was our options; our decision making. If our decision making was better, we would have won the match. We did have opportunity to score tries and do things, but our decision making was poor today.
“The result doesn’t matter, what matters starts in two weeks time and we need to give ourselves a chance. The only way in which we can do that is by effectively managing our resources. The positive for me is some players have thrown their hat into the ring and have impressed.
“We got out of the match what we wanted; we wanted to give game time to the players because that is very important to us. It is all a means to an end for us, our total priority is the promotion play-offs and we have to plan for them accordingly. What position you are in the league doesn’t really matter because you have to play all the best teams and you have to win those games.
“The boys have had good game time in a very physical match and the experience will have done them the world of good and we have to give London Scottish some credit, they are a good side. But I will not deviate from our plan because I believe what we are doing will give us the best chance of getting to where we want to get to. The bottom line is the bigger picture and it has to be that way.”
Referee: Ross Campbell
Attendance: 953
Titans:
Scottish: Peel (T), Gosio (T), Westren (T).
Titans: 15 Stephen Hamilton, 14 Ed Tellwright, 13 Byron Godfrey (Dave McCall h/t), 12 Pale Nonu, 11 Peter Homan, 10 Cliffie Hodgson, 9 Dale Farnham, 1 Jamie Kilbane (Ben Harris 70), 2 Ted Stagg, 3 Rob O’Donnell, 4 Neale Patrick (Capt.) (Rikki Stout 74), 5 Adrian Griffiths, 6 Tom Armes, 7 Carl Kirwan, 8 Ben Wade (Talite Vaioleti 50).
Replacements: 16 Jan-Francois Bester, 17 Ben Harris, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Talite Vaioleti, 20 Semisi Taulava, 21 Tom Foden, 22 Dave McCall.
London Scottish: 15 Stuart Peel, 14 Agustin Gosio, 13 Ryan Westren, 12 Charlie Hayter, 11 Gerard Mullen, 10 James Brown (Capt.) (Oli Grove 77), 9 Matt Heeks (Jamie Stevenson 58), 1 Alex Clarke, 2 Tom Standfield (Adam Kwasnicki h/t), 3, Aaron Liffchak, 4 Steve Pape (Alex Karonias 52), 5 Josh Brown, 6 Adam Kleeberger, 7 Ben Lonergan, 8 Mark Bright.
Replacements: 16 Matt Johnson, 17 Adam Kwasnicki, 18 Alex MacKenzie, 19 Alex Karonias, 20 Jamie Stevenson, 21 Oli Grove, 22 James Kellard.
