Match Report: Titans v Falcons

By Roth Admin
November 17 2003

Rotherham Titans loose their 10th successive game of the season and are knocked out of the Powergen Cup by Newcastle Falcons. In front what looked like a very disappointing crowd, the Titans went down 38:10.

For the second time in 8 days Rotherham were heavily beaten by a superior Newcastle side. The back line of the Falcons was once again in devastating form and appeared to score at will. The first 40 minutes were probably the Titans worst performance of the season so far.

The game got underway and it took the Falcons only 5 minutes to score their 1st try. The blistering pace of Michael Stephenson allowed him to cut infield evading the Rotherham defence, gallop 30 metres and off load to the powerful Epi Taione to go over near the corner. Dave Walder missed with the conversion.

Just 4 minutes later and Rotherham reduced the deficit to 2 points. A good break in mid-field by Glen Remnant drew Newcastle in to infringe at the breakdown. A well-taken penalty from Jason Strange made the score 3:5.

On 16 minutes Rotherham turned the ball over on their own scrum. Quick ball released the Falcons backs and Jamie Noon kicked a grubber in to the corner, Tom May had the speed to get by young Dave Strettle and score Newcastle’s 2nd try of the game. This time Walder converted.

On 32 minutes a Rotherham kicked a drop from their own 22 and gave possession back to Newcastle. That man Stephenson was on hand once again. He cut through a very poor Rotherham defence and went over for his 1st try under the posts. Walder slotted over the easy conversion. By now the Rotherham heads appeared to be dropping. The tackling was poor and it looked as though some players didn’t want to be out there.

However 3 minutes in to 1st half injury time, the Rotherham crowd finally had something to cheer about. Rotherham were hemmed in, just 10 metres from their own goal line. Jacob Rauluni threw the ball to Stortoni who was virtually stood on the goal line. Instead of the expected kick in to touch, he decided to run it. Jinxing this way and that he must have gone through or pass 6 or 7 Newcastle players. When he was finally tackled on halfway, disappointedly he had no support and was bundled in to touch.

The second half did not start much better for Rotherham as it only took 6 minutes for Newcastle to score their 4th try of the afternoon. Some brilliant and fluent handling through the Newcastle backs enabled full back Ben Gollings to go over near the corner. Once again Walder missed the conversion.

Sport is a strange game and cannot be explained at times. This was one of those times. The last 30 minutes of the game Rotherham not only started to compete on equal terms, but quite frankly looked the better side. There were some bright runs from Jason Keyter; Bernardo Stortoni looked lively when given the ball and the pack were getting right on top. Chris Johnson and Leon Greef especially stood out. Phase after phase Rotherham impressed and one driving maul in particular drove Newcastle back 25 metres.

When the replacements started to appear, Glen Kenworthy and Russell Earnshaw impressed. But Nick Lloyd as always was superb. His scrummaging was good, but in open play, can there be a better pair of hands at loose head in the Premiership?

It was against the run of play when on 27 minutes of the 2nd half Rotherham turned the ball over and Newcastle scored their 5th try through flanker Phil Dowson This time Walder converted.

It was no more than Rotherham deserved when just 2 minutes later, a quick tap by Jason Strange laid a short pass to Leon Greef who made some hard yards to send Nick Lloyd over for Rotherham’s 1st try. Strange successfully converted the try to get Rotherham in to double figures.

Just 3 minutes from time Newcastle scored their 6th try of the game through man of the match Michael Stephenson and Dave Walder slotted home the conversion to make the final score Rotherham Titans 10 Newcastle Falcons 38.


Although out of the cup and loosing their 10th consecutive game of the season, there were lots of positives from the final 30 minutes. If Rotherham can play like that for the full 80, then it’s only a matter of time before that elusive 1st win is firmly tucked under their belts.


To follow this match report are Mike Schmid’s post match comments and an exclusive interview with Chris Johnson.