Roth 30 Bees 12

Des Tuiavii
By Roth Admin
October 31 2004

Rotherham put on a brilliant display of rugby to put Pertemps Bees to the sword, beating them by 30 points to 12. With an outstanding first half performance in which Roth scored three tries, the game was virtually over after forty minutes.

In the top of the table clash, Rotherham needed to improve five fold from last week’s performance away at Coventry. In fact they improved ten!

Bees started the better; their ability to retain the ball was impressive. Just five minutes in and Rotherham suffered a setback, blind side flanker Des Tuiavii was yellow carded for a high tackle.

Bees had obviously studied some videos of Roth’s recent performances, because instead of taking the easy three points they decided to kick for touch and test Roth’s defence of the catch and drive. But credit to Rotherham, after working on this aspect in midweek, they never looked like conceding a try from this method of attack.

In fact it was while down to 14 men that Roth got the scoreboard ticking first. On 12 minutes Bees attacked a ruck from the side and Ramiro Pez punished them with a confident conversion.

Just four minutes later and still playing with 14 men, Michael Wood making his first start of the season after recovering from injury scored the first try of the match. After a really good period of possession which saw play stretched from one flank to the other, Lee Blackett found himself with the ball. Blackett took it on and found Wood in space on the left. Wood showing a clean pair of heels gallop down the left wing to go over in the corner. Pez converted brilliantly to give Roth a 10-0 advantage.

Now it was all Rotherham and very reminiscent of the league game against Plymouth at the beginning of the month. As the game entered the second quarter Keyter found some room in the Bees defence and spread the ball out to full back Elliott. Elliott sidestepped back inside avoiding one tackle, and then used his exceptional pace to run around the Bees covering defence to go over left of the posts. Another successful conversion by Pez increased the hosts lead to 17-0.

Four minutes later and a promising Bees attack down their right by centre Mike Davies looked dangerous until he was stopped by David Strettle. Strettle as quick as you like gathered up the loose ball ten metres inside his own half and in front of the shed. Off he raced down the right flank, the Bees full back tried in vain to cover as Strettle outstripped him and cut back inside to score under the posts for a converted try.

Rotherham increased their lead to 27-0 on 32 minutes when Ramiro Pez slotted over another penalty after Birmingham once again infringed in the loose. This was the most devastating rugby that Roth had played all season. The backs were incisive and inventive and the forwards smashed Birmingham back at every opportunity.

It was inevitable that Birmingham would come back into the game; they’re too good to be dominated for too long. On the stroke of half time after a series of phases from their big pack the ball was spun left and there were five spare men queuing up to score. Outside centre Shaun Woof was the one on hand to go over near the posts. Tim Walsh converted to bring the first half to a close.

Half Time: Rotherham 27 Pertemps Bees 7

The second half was predictably less spectacular and at times a little dour. Although Bees had the lion’s share of possession in the 3rd quarter, they never really threatened try line. In fact it wasn’t until the 65th minute that the next score arrived. Once again Birmingham infringed and gave away a penalty, this time at the set scrum. Up stepped Pez to collect another three points for Roth and increase their lead to 30-7.

Eight minutes from time Elliott was held up over the Bees line and two minutes from time Blackett was knocked into touch five metres from goal to deny Roth a wining bonus point.

From the resulting line out Bees travelled the length of the pitch with a series of phases where their ball retention was the best seen this season. When the ball eventually came out it found the leagues leading try scorer Nick Baxter, whose pace enabled him to go over in the far left hand corner. Walsh missed the conversion and a few minutes later referee Steve Leyshon (who showed there are some good ref’s still around) blew for full time

Full Time: Rotherham 30 Pertemps Bees 12



What a difference a week can make! After some recent indifferent performances by Roth, here today we saw just what this squad is capable of. The set scrum was solid, line outs were the best we’ve seen this season and the backs showed their full potential. The work put in this week on defending the driving maul paid dividends – at no time this method of attack ever look like breaching the Roth defence.

Des Tuiavii was magnificent! Some of the big mans tackles sent a shudder threw ones spine. He was immense in the loose, constantly smashing the Birmingham’s pack backwards and his work on the ground was faultless.

Rotherham now get a week off as next weekend sees the 4th round of the Powergen Cup take place and they will be glad of the rest. Next up are Bristol – the big games keep coming thick and fast.


Afterwards Mike Schmid commented, “I was delighted with the whole game. Attacking wise in the 1st half we played very well, when we are allowed to play quick we are a very good team. Thankfully I thought the referee refereed the breakdown superbly and allowed both teams to play, which is what we want. In the second half – they’re a top team, they are not at the top of the league for no reason – we came out and I thought our defence was absolutely brilliant. We made a minor mistake but we cleaned up really well, the guys worked back hard, they tried to go around us - we pushed them into touch. They tried to go through the middle –we smashed them back.

They scored a good try in the 1st half, though we fell asleep. We were a bit tired and ready to go into the dressing room and we came of the boil a bit. That was really our only defensive mistake all day. I’m really proud of these guys.

Des was magnificent, I love playing alongside him. He’s amazing; he just gets in the middle of stuff. He upsets the opposition’s rhythm, he finds holes – I don’t know how he gets through some of them. He fights hard and some of the contacts he makes just inspires the guys around him. We did miss him last week; the conditions last week were made for him. And I think you can see the kind of impact he can make for our team.”

Roth Admin man of the match Des Tuiavii added, “We didn’t really expect to gain such a comprehensive win against one of the best sides in the division. The last couple of weeks we’ve been a bit up and down but this was an important game for us and we needed to come away with the win.

We did the basics well; we got our hands on the ball and went forward, that was the secret in the first half. The forwards kept taking the ball on and that gave the backs room to do their stuff.

I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get the bonus point, we tried to force some passes in the second half and they didn’t come off, but Birmingham defended really well.”


And Lee Blackett chipped in, “We were all disappointed after to last week because we know we’ve got a lot more in us than that. To be honest though I wasn’t expecting the first half performance that we put in, they weren’t even in the ball game. And what we wanted to do in the 2nd half is not do what we did against Plymouth and let them back in it. And I don’t think that we did.

Every time we were down there we put points on the board, whether it was three or seven. It was a brilliant performance all round, they weren’t many missed tackles or anything. The attitude was first class and when their dangerous back three got the ball we just kept on banging them.”




Roth Admin Man of the Match: Des Tuiavii. He was awesome!

Referee: Steve Leyshon (9)



Rotherham:
15 Anthony Elliott, 14 Michael Wood, 13 Jason Keyter, 12 Lee Blackett, 11 David Strettle, 10 Ramiro Pez, 9 Jacob Rauluni, 1 Jon Golding, 2 Neil Briggs, 3 Colin Noon, 4 Jonathan Pendlebury, 5 Glen Kenworthy, 6 Des Tuiavii, 7 Craig Short, 8 Mike Schmid

Replacements: 16 Richard Emms, 17 Rod Latham, 18 John Rawson, 19 Tim Maslanyk, 20 Adam Harrington, 21 Tom Rice, 22 Tom Eaton.


Pertemps Bees:
15 Dave Knight, 14 Aaron Takarangi, 13 Shaun Woof, 12 Mike Davies, 11 Nick Baxter, 10 Tim Walsh, 9 Paul Knight, 1 Jim Thorp, 2 Matt Miles, 3 Matt Long, 4 Dan Zaltzman, 5 Rob Walton, 6 Ed Orgee, 7 Gavin Pfister, 8 Hese Fakatou

Replacements
16 Rob Merritt, 17 Martin O'Keefe, 18 Rob Hurrell, 19 Thomas Richardson, 20 Duncan White 21 Scott Williams-Greenway, 22 Mark Woodrow.