Titans 0 - 47 Connacht

Rotherham fielded a mixed side combining new recruits, academy players and just two first team regulars from last season. Rotherham purposely chose difficult opposition to test themselves and that they indeed did.

Connacht proved to have too much pace, power and experience for the home side. The visitors ran in four tries in the first half and another three in the second with man of the match Danny Riordan running in four classy efforts.

Rotherham rarely troubled the visitors try line but battled valiantly throughout. New signing Gareth Steenson showed glimpses of class before going off injured and Louis McGowan and Neil Hanna showed just why they are first team regulars.

Afterwards Rotherham’s Head Coach Andre Bester said, “We were better than I expected, but you have to remember it was Connacht’s second game of the season and they are a European side. I also thought the referee was like us in that he needed to shake off the cobwebs.

“Connacht played off our mistakes, we lost four out of six line outs in the first half and they scored on each occasion. We had young guys who made mistakes, but they will learn.

“But this was tremendously positive, I said before hand what I would be happy with and they scored a lot less. I thought our pack and scrimmaging was outstanding against a European side and I thought our line out improved as the game went on.

“I thought our backs were solid in defence and only once were they broken, but we know where the mistake was. I thought whenever we kept the ball we looked good, but we were impatient and we looked liked a bunch of guys that had not played together before, which was the situation.

“But overall I believe it will be a season to really look forward to.”

Connacht’s Coach Michael Bradley said, “We would like to thank Andre and Rotherham for the game because they jumped in at the last moment for us and we were very happy for that. We had a bit of a split team today and it was a good performance in some areas.

“There are always things you can work on and we need to concentrate a little bit more on our first phase and in particular the scrum. We need a bigger return there, but we didn’t have our scrimmaging pack out there today, but we’ll have a look at those areas.

“We did a lot of good work in turn over ball and a lot of good work in defence and the indications are we are going in the right direction. I was pleased with Danny Riordan today, he’s come through the Connacht system with Corinthians and he’s a very talented young man.”

Connacht Scorers:

Tries: Riordan (4), McPhillips, Muldoon, Farley.

Cons: Slemen (4), Warwick (2)