Roth 35 Nottingham 26

Jason Keyter
By Roth Admin
October 10 2004

Rotherham maintained their 100% start to the season with a hard fought victory over a battling Nottingham. Nottingham pushed an under par Titans all the way and it wasn’t until the 2nd minute of injury time that Rotherham secured the victory with a Lee Blackett try.

The only points scored in a disjointed and scrappy first twenty was a Pez penalty after just two minutes. Then in a crazy three minute spell the visitors scored two converted tries, Brennan and Wyles going over and Stenhouse successful with the kicks. Nottingham’s tries coming from a combination of good powerful forward play and Rotherham turning ball over in the tackle.

On the half hour mark Rotherham finally secured some decent ball and after good work from Jorgensen and Eaton the ball was spun wide for flying winger David Strettle to go over near the corner. Pez made the conversion.

Four minutes later and a Brennan clearance was charged down by Pez who picked up and raced towards the whitewash showing excellent pace in doing so. Pez surprisingly missed the conversion to leave the hosts 15-14 ahead.

From the restart Roth knocked on and from the subsequent pressure Nottingham scored their 3rd try. A catch and drive (a pre-game plan) saw Richard Lloyd driven over from his capable pack. Stenhouse made the difficult conversion to give the visitors a 21-15 advantage.

A minute into 1st half injury time Pez slotted over a penalty to send Roth in at the break trailing 18-21.

The restart saw the introduction of Pendlebury and Tuiavii. On 48 minutes Roth levelled with another Pez penalty after Quigley was shown the yellow card for killing the ball.

The hour mark saw the try of the match. Young Roth hooker Neil Briggs collected from Rauluni on half way. He then found a gap in the visitors defence and raced away evading two desperate challenges to go over under the posts. Pez made the kick to give Roth a 28-21 lead.

Nottingham were not about to fold and showed a remarkable spirit that belies their league position. Another catch and drive near the Roth line saw Richard Lloyd bundled over for his 2nd and Nottingham’s 4th try of the game, giving them a well deserved bonus point. Stenhouse missed the conversion to leave the visitors trailing 28-26.

With 15 minutes to go and Nottingham’s pack having the edge an upset looked likely. But as ever with this set of Rotherham players, they just refuse to be beaten and some resilient and determined defending kept them at bay.

Then in the 2nd minute of stoppage time after some good forward play, Pez’s miss pass found Tuiavii who found Blackett who resisted a strong tackle to go over and seal the game and give Roth the vital bonus point. Pez made the difficult conversion from near the left hand touch to make the final score: - Rotherham 35 Nottingham 26.

After last weeks heroics against Plymouth it was always going to be difficult to put in another performance like that. But maybe a combination of complacency and a very gritty and determined Nottingham made for such a close and tense game.

Rotherham will be concerned at their inability at times to defend the driving maul from the Nottingham line out. Rotherham’s own line out was not as effective and even their usual solid scrum was at times made to look ordinary.

On the positive side, it is good teams that can have an off day and still come up with the full five points.


Roth Admin Man of the Match: Ramiro Pez

Referee: Gareth Copsey

Att: 1350


Rotherham:
15 Anthony Elliott, 14 Lee Blackett, 13 Peter Jorgensen, 12 Jason Keyter, 11 David Strettle, 10 Ramiro Pez, 9 Tom Eaton, 1 Riaan Olckers, 2 Neil Briggs, 3 Colin Noon, 4 Tim Maslanyk, 5 Glen Kenworthy, 6 Adam Harrington, 7 Craig Short ©, 8 Mike Schmid.

Replacements
16 Jonathan Golding, 17 Rod Latham, 18 John Rawson, 19 Jonathan Pendlebury, 20 Des Tuiavii, 21 Jacob Rauluni, 22 Mark Sweeney.

Nottingham:
15 David Jackson, 14 Chris Wyles, 13 Alan Cook, 12 Tom Kirk, 11 Warren Coles, 10 Neil Stenhouse, 9 Kevin Brennan, 1 Nigel Hall, 2 Simon Jenkins, 3 Tonga Lea`aetoa, 4 Ben Blackwall, 5 Dan Moore, 6 Craig Hammond ©, 7 Richard Lloyd, 8 Howard Quigley.

Replacements
16 Jim Henry, 17 Andy Fuller, 18 Adam Corcoran, 19 Gary Jones, 20 Luke Sawyer, 21 Jun Shaw, 22 Ben Thompson.