Nottingham 19 Roth 12
Jacob Rauluni
By Roth Admin
February 22 2005
Rotherham crashed to a surprise 19-12 defeat against Nottingham at Ireland Avenue on Saturday. Roth’s performance typified the inconsistencies that have plagued them throughout a difficult season. And although Roth picked up a losing bonus point – it wasn’t one they deserved on the day.
Head Coach Andy Northey stated afterwards, “We showed a lack of mental strength! We went to Bedford and came away bristling with confidence and then come here against a lower league side and under perform. We turned ball over and didn’t make tackles and ultimately we got beat.
“I think we were complacent mentally, we thought we were going to win today and that’s where the inconsistency comes from. It was terrible – how on earth we got a bonus point today, I don’t know. If we’d lost by 40 points today we couldn’t have complained.
We all have to take responsibility for that performance today. But to be fair to Nottingham they played well and at times appeared to “want” it more than us. And they looked like a side that needed to win. It was a simple case of thinking we were better than we were.”
Rotherham started poorly and fell behind on 3 minutes from the famous Nottingham driving maul, which was initiated from a line out on the 22 metre line. Thompson made the difficult conversion to give the hosts an early 7-0 advantage.
Tom Eaton who’d suffered a bout of flu in the week took a knock to his face in the 12th minute and was replaced by Richard Hopkinson.
As the first quarter neared Rotherham set up their own driving maul from a 5 metre line out and Opeta Palepoi was driven over for an unconverted try. Ten minutes later and Roth should have taken the lead after a series of penalties near the Nottingham line led to a series of mauls which were bravely defended before Roth eventually lost the ball.
The remainder of the first half was mainly uneventful and Rotherham went in at the break trailing 7-5.
Rotherham started the 2nd half equally as bad as the first and conceded another driving maul try after just two minutes. Second rower Hammond was on hand this time to touch down and Thompson succeeded with another well taken conversion to increase Nott’s lead to 14-5.
On 56 minutes it was like watching Groundhog Day as another Nottingham driving maul ensured their third try of the game with Lea’aetoa breaching the whitewash on this occasion. Thompson missed the conversion.
As the half developed Rotherham continued to make unforced errors and generally look lacklustre in everything they did. So it was surprising when the final play of the game saw Rotherham score a converted try to grab a losing bonus point.
From a 5 metre scrum Rauluni fed Haami who kicked on into the Nottingham in-goal area for the in form Peter Jorgensen to touch down for his 8th try of the season. Anthony Elliott converted in front of the posts to give Roth an undeserved point.
Roth Admin Man of the match: Michael Wood
Referee: N Higginson
Rotherham:
15 Michael Wood, 14 David Strettle, 13 Peter Jorgensen, 12 Lee Blackett, 11 Anthony Elliott, 10 Tom Eaton (Hopkinson 12) (Rauluni 46), 9 Brendan Haami, 1 Jon Golding (Boulton 71), 2 Richard Emms, 3 Rod Latham (Rainima 49), 4 Opeta Palepoi, 5 Glen Kenworthy (Pike 59), 6 Des Tuiavii © (Pendlebury 49), 7 Tu Tamarua (Rice 71), 8 Jannie Bornman
Replacements:
16 Tom Rice, 17 Phil Boulton, 18 Seru Rainima, 19 Nathan Pike, 20 Jonathan Pendlebury, 21 Jacob Rauluni, 22 Richard Hopkinson
Nottingham:
Jackson; Molenaar, Cook (Coles), Kirk, Wyles; Thompson (Stenhouse), Brennan; Lea’aetoa (Fuller), Loney (Fowkes), Hall, Hammond (capt), Morley (Blackwall), Fitisemanu (Quigley), Lloyd (Corcoran), Easter