Orrell 9 Rotherham 29
Pete Jorgensen
By Roth Admin
January 17 2005
Rotherham Titans secured that elusive win, with a comprehensive 29-9 victory at bottom placed Orrell. Three tries to nil ensured the Titans gained their first league win in their last five attempts. Tries from Ripol, Jorgensen and a penalty try gave Roth a much needed confidence-boosting win.
Andy Northey – Head Coach for the rest of the season – said, “These lads have shown tremendous character today. But let’s not get carried away, Orrell are bottom of the league – so it’s nothing to hold our hat on.
“It was massively important to get the win today, especially after everything that’s happened this week. If we’d come to Orrell the basement club and got beat, then you are really going to have to work hard to turn things around. We just had to win whether it be by hook or by crook! And doing that today gives us a positive to take into next week.”
Rotherham started well and a Tom Eaton penalty after just 2 minutes gave the visitors the advantage. James Moore levelled the scores on 9 minutes with a well taken penalty of his own.
Roth’s first try came on 17 minutes from a scrum 15 metres from the Orrell line. Haami fed Eaton who then found Strettle who had drifted in from his wing. Strettle cut inside the defence and then offloaded to Ripol whose pace was enough to touch down left of the posts for an unconverted try.
Orrell came back with another well taken penalty from James Moore after Rotherham had been penalised for pulling down the Orrell maul.
Not deterred though the Rotherham pack was beginning to dominate things and after a series of set scrums near the Orrell line in which the home side continued to disrupt – Referee Copsey awarded Roth a penalty try. Eaton converted to increase the lead to 15-9.
Moore and Eaton traded penalties late in the first half to send the teams in at the break with the visitors leading 18-9.
Although Orrell started the 2nd half brighter it was the Titans who scored next with an Eaton penalty on the hour mark and then again seven minutes later after Arnold had been shown the yellow card for Orrell.
Rotherham’s pack continued to dominate the Orrell eight as the match wore on. Then in the 73rd minute a box kick from Rauluni was gathered and fed out to Michael Wood on the left wing. Woody cut back inside and fed Pete Jorgensen who showed good speed and skill to dummy his way around Spragg to go over near the corner for a fine try. Eaton was short with the difficult conversion.
Rotherham powered on looking for the bonus point, but credit must be given to Orrell as they defended resolutely to keep the visitors at bay.
Final Score: Orrell 9 Rotherham 29
Afterwards Titans wing Michael Wood commented, “It was good to get the win and we showed a bit more form today. We set up good set-piece work and got into their territory and stayed down there. We kept the pressure on and took the 3 points when we needed to.
“We’ve got to move on, we can’t live in the past and I’m sure Mike wouldn’t want that anyway with the players. It’s sad what’s happened but the team has to move on. There’s still a future for Rotherham and we are part of that for the moment. We’ll play the last three months of the season and try and get as good a league position as we can.”
Overall Rotherham will be pleased to get a win after what’s seemed like an age since the last one. They fully deserved their victory and will take some confidence into next week’s home game against strugglers London Welsh. It’s still not beyond Rotherham’s capabilities of finishing in the top six – and who at Roth would not have accepted that just 5 months ago?
Roth Admin Man of the Match: Jannie Bornman – Gets better and better.
Referee: G. Copsey
Attendance: 500
Rotherham Titans
15. Oriol Ripol, 14. David Strettle (Keyter 73), 13. Peter Jorgenson, 12. Lee Blackett, 11. Michael Wood, 10. Tom Eaton, 9. Brendon Haami (Rauluni 53), 1. Jon Golding (Latham 80), 2. Neil Briggs (Emms 69), 3. John Rawson, 4. Jonathan Pendlebury (Palepoi 56), 5. Glen Kenworthy, 6. Des Tuiavii (c) (Rice 74), 7, Tu Tuarama, 8. Jannie Bornman
Replacements
16. Richard Emms, 17. Craig West, 18. Rod Latham, 19. Opeta Palepoi, 20. Tom Rice, 21. Jacob Rauluni, 22. Jason Keyter
Orrell
15. Spragg, 14. Robson, 13. Briers, 12. Reay, 11. Vinney, 10. Moore, 9. Chivers, 1. Livesey, 2. Dowdridge, 3. Bozzi, 4. Ryder, 5. Arnold, 6. Schueller, 7. Wilks D, 8. Davies
Replacements
16. Millea, 17. Horn-Smith, 18. Wilks R, 19. Atkinson, 20. Wigham, 21. Winney, 22. Armstrong