Rotherham Titans (19) vs Bedford Blues (32) - Championship Play Offs Pool B
Pre-Match Report
Titans ready for Bedford Battle
Rotherham Titans have endured a tough week’s training in anticipation of a very physical battle with Bedford Blues on Saturday; kick-off 2pm at Clifton Lane.
Andre Bester has picked arguably his strongest side as he hopes to kick-start the play-off campaign with a victory. In stage 1 of the season Rotherham beat Bedford 40-32 at Clifton Lane, collecting the try bonus point along the way. Something similar would be most welcome, but Bedford who finished runners-up in the league will no doubt provide stiff opposition.
Of the 31 previous encounters between the sides, it is Bedford who holds the upper hand with 18 victories. However, one of Rotherham Titans greatest achievements came against Bedford 12 years ago. Rotherham beat Bedford over a two-legged play-off to attain Premiership rugby for the first time.
Although a great memory for Rotherham, that is in the past and if they want to realise their ambition of a third tilt in the Premiership, the hard work starts on Saturday.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s encounter Titans head coach Andre Bester explained, “This is crunch time! This is what we have been building up to all season and we won’t shy away from the importance of it.
“It is the first group of matches that is important, not just the Bedford game. The first three matches are very important in terms of positioning yourself. Nothing is terminal, but it can become terminal if we have issues against Bedford and do not respond in the right way.
“We need to put ourselves in a position after the first 3 play-off matches so we give ourselves a chance of making the semi-final. That’s the only thing that we are working towards; giving ourselves a window of opportunity to have a crack at this. That’s why during the season we rotated heavily and why we planned things the way we did. We now have a fully fit squad that’s eager to get out there and give it their best shot.
“We’ve pick the full team for this game and we’ve worked terribly hard for what we want to do. We know more than anything else it’s going to be a mental challenge, the top six inches will determine the outcome. Our intensity has picked up massively since the London Scottish game and all the players are aware this is the business end of the season.”
Titans: 15 Stephen Hamilton, 14 Tom Foden, 13 Dave McCall, 12 Pale Nonu, 11 Shane Monahan, 10 Garry Law, 9 Jimmy Williams, 1 Shane Cahill, 2 Dan Baines, 3 Ben Hooper, 4 Sam Dickinson (Capt.), 5 Barney Maddison, 6 Robin Copeland, 7 Sean Dougall, 8 Semisi Taulava.
Replacements: 16 Ted Stagg, 17 Jamie Kilbane, 18 Talite Vaioleti, 19 Adrian Griffiths, 20 Carl Kirwan, 21 Matt Rhodes, 22 Byron Godfrey.
Match Report
Titans suffer opening game defeat
Rotherham Titans promotion hopes took a knock as they went down 19-32 to Bedford Blues at a windy Clifton Lane. Despite leading the contest for 74 minutes, a late Bedford rally saw the host’s go home empty handed.
It had all started so brightly for Rotherham after Shane Monahan raced down the left flank to score his 10th try of the season within the opening minute. Law converted and then extended Titans lead further just 4 minutes later with a neatly taken penalty.
James Pritchard and Garry Law traded penalties as the first quarter of the match elapsed. Approaching the half-hour mark and from a Bedford scrum midway inside Titans half, the ball was spread along the visitor’s backline culminating with Ollie Dodge touching down in the right corner. Pritchard missed his conversion and Bedford trailed 13-8.
Before the break Garry Law had opportunities to extend Rotherham’s advantage with two penalty attempts, however, the blustery conditions saw both efforts narrowly drift wide and no further scores ensued in the first half.
Pritchard’s penalty early in the 2nd half reduced the visitor’s arrears to two points, although Rotherham seized the majority of possession and territory as the half wore on.
On 53 minutes and with the home side on top, Law surprising missed his 3rd penalty of the afternoon. Shortly after Titans were held up on the Bedford line and a series of 5 metre scrums ensued. Under massive pressure from the Titans scrum, Blues open side Darren Fox was shown a yellow card for his side’s persistent infringements.
Rotherham now had a massive opportunity to increase their lead from the scrum five metres out and with the visitors a man light in the pack. Astonishingly, referee Wigglesworth awarded Bedford the penalty at the set piece and they cleared the danger. Titans did nudge further ahead on 66 minutes as Law slotted over a penalty.
Ten minutes from time it appeared as if Dan Baines had scored in the corner to pretty much seal victory for the hosts. However, the touch judge deemed Baines’ foot had just gone into touch before grounding the ball.
Heartbreakingly so for the Titans, Bedford mounted a late rally and astonishingly scored three tries in the final 7 minutes! Don Barrell, Josh Bassett and Darryl Veenendaal crossed the whitewash for Pritchard to convert all three. Sandwiched in there was a Law penalty that would have earned Titans a losing bonus point, but Veenendaal’s last-gasp effort meant the home side were sent home with an undeserved pointless defeat.
A shocked and disappointed Andre Bester reflected, “We dominated for long spells but ended up losing the match. Rugby is about being clinical and Bedford were more clinical than we were today. We had enough opportunities to put the game away. In the first half we broke their line twice but knocked-on on both occasions. We had a line out 5 metres from their line and messed that up and their first try came from us messing up another line –out.
“In the second half we completely dominated but gave away silly penalties. We had three or four scrums on their line and then the referee sent their guy off and then we were suddenly penalised. We had the dominant scrum and were going forward and the referee penalised us, I couldn’t believe it.
“But it’s not over by a long way and we can take a lot of positives out of our performance. It’s not a critical defeat and to write these boys off just yet would be foolish.”
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Attendance: 1586
Titans: Monahan (T), Law (4P, 1C).
Bedford: Dodge (T), Barrell (T), Bassett (T), Veenendaal (T), Pritchard (1P, 3C), Sharp (1P).
Titans: 15 Tom Foden, 14 Stephen Hamilton, 13 Dave McCall, 12 Pale Nonu (Byron Godfrey 72), 11 Shane Monahan, 10 Garry Law, 9 Jimmy Williams, 1 Shane Cahill (Jamie Kilbane 72), 2 Dan Baines, 3 Ben Hooper, 4 Sam Dickinson (Capt.), 5 Barney Maddison (Adrian Griffiths 74), 6 Robin Copeland, 7 Sean Dougall, 8 Semisi Taulava (Carl Kirwan 74).
Replacements: 16 Ted Stagg, 17 Jamie Kilbane, 18 Talite Vaioleti, 19 Adrian Griffiths, 20 Carl Kirwan, 21 Matt Rhodes, 22 Byron Godfrey.
Bedford Blues: 15 James Pritchard (Capt.), 14 Ollie Dodge, 13 Henry Staff, 12 Ian Vass (Brendan Burke 49), 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Jake Sharp (Jamie Lennard 58), 9 Luke Baldwin (Darryl Veenendaal 58), 1 Sam Walsh (Nico Steenkamp 67), 2 Neil Cochrane (Chris Locke 74), 3 Phil Boulton, 4 Sean Tomes (Sacha Harding 58), 5 Paul Tupai, 6 Alex Rae, 7 Darren Fox, 8 Jonathon Fisher (Don Barrell 58).
Replacements: 16 Chris Locke, 17 Nico Steenkamp, 18 Don Barrell, 19 Sacha Harding, 20 Darryl Veenendaal, 21 Jamie Lennard, 22 Brendan Burke.
