Rotherham Titans 20 - Leeds Tykes 34

By Roth Admin
April 8 2004

Rotherham Titans disappointing season continued at Millmoor on Friday, with Leeds Tykes beating their Yorkshire hosts 34-20. Titans had their fair share of possession and field position, but it was the Tykes who demonstrated how to score tries when the opportunities came.

Before kick off all connected with Rotherham were confident of witnessing the Titans 1st victory of what has been a long and difficult return to top flight Rugby. However it was to be another false dawn when Leeds fly half Gordon Ross stole the show by scoring 24 points, with two tries, four conversions and two penalties.

A frenetic opening 20 minutes saw Leeds go 6-0 ahead from two penalties by Ross. Rotherham hit back to lead when Brad Macleod-Henderson fed Corniel van Zyl who broke through a number of tackles to score neat try in the corner and Phil Jones converted to edge the Titans a point ahead.

Rotherham’s advantage lasted three minutes as Ross waltzed his way through a host of missed tackles to score a soft try which he converted to give Leeds a 13-7 lead. On 31 minutes, man of the match Ross jinked through the defence to put Diego Albanese in at the corner, before adding the extra 2 points to give Leeds a 20-7 advantage.

Just on the stroke of halt time Leeds were penalised for being offside just inside their own half near the far touchline. With the angle it must have been 55 metres, however Phil Jones stepped up to strike a marvellous conversion right through the posts.

Just two minutes into the 2nd period and Rotherham reduced the deficit to just 7 points when Jones once again converted a difficult penalty. Jones should have reduced the gap to just 4 points on 46 minutes, but somehow from within the Leeds 22, he missed badly.

Maybe this was a wake-up call for the Tykes as they mounted phase after phase of forward pressure, which culminated with hooker Rawlinson crashing over from close range. Once again Mr reliable made the conversion to extend the lead to 27-13.

On 70 minutes Ross collected his second try, which he again converted to open up 34-13 lead, which gave a lopsided view to the scoreboard. However Five minutes from time Rotherham second rower Bloues Volschenk crashed over for the Titans 2nd try of the evening and Jones made the difficult conversion to give a degree of respectability to the final score.

At this stage of the season, although all the players are professionals, it must be difficult not knowing whether they will be offered a new contract or not, likewise with the management team and coaching staff. The sooner these issues are resolved the better it will be for the club to start planning their strategy for their attempt at regaining Premiership status.

Rotherham: Stortoni (C Harrison 80); A Elliott (L Blackett 30), J Pritchard, M Umaga (J Benson 58), M Wood; P Jones, G Easterby (capt); R Olckers (N Lloyd 71), A Long (C Johnson 67), C Noon, L Gross, C Van Zyl (B Volschenk 56), D Tuavii, B Macleod-Henderson, G Lewis (N Spence 66).

Leeds: M Cardey; D Rees, T Davies (D Hodge 58), A Snyman, D Albanese; G Ross, A Dickens; G Powell, R Rawlinson (M Regan 72), G Kerr (M Holt 71), P Murphy (S Morgan 80), T Palmer (capt), M Salter, J Ponton (A Popham 58), C Rigney.

Referee: R Maybank.