Roth 6 Otley 26
Tom Eaton
By Roth Admin
March 28 2005
Rotherham Titans suffered their first “double” of the season, going down 26-6 to Yorkshire rivals Otley at Clifton Lane. It is almost eight years since Rotherham lost both league games against the same opposition at this level. On that occasion Newcastle Falcons were the opponents.
No disrespect to Otley – but they are no Newcastle! Rather it demonstrates how far Rotherham has fallen in this most difficult of seasons. Not so long ago teams such as Otley were dispatched with the minimum of fuss – alas not any more.
Back in September the aim of the club was to save itself from extinction, try and find 22 players to compete and ultimately fulfil its fixture obligations to the RFU. What has been achieved thus far has been incredible and credit must be given to all involved. From the very top at director level down to the band of loyal and devoted fans who turn up every week to support to their heroes.
Special mention must be given to Jim Kilfoyle and Andy Northey who have given their all in search for players – when few are available - and then getting 22 lads on the park to give 100% for the Rotherham cause.
However what will be of interest is how the “Faithful Band” respond next season if Rotherham continue to perform as they did against Otley. Roth fans were willing to put up with disappointing results in the Premiership and have given their team incredible support in this traumatic season, both vocal and financial.
Whether they will tolerate mediocre results next season is the million dollar question and has already caused some debate among supporters. Enter Andre Bester!
The enthusiastic and supremely confident South African has taken on a massive job of trying to turn around the fortunes of the South Yorkshire club. And if he can achieve just 50% of what he wants then the future of the Laners promises to be exiting as well as successful.
All at Rotherham must give him the chance! And then hopefully the type of display shown against Otley will be a thing of the past.
In the first half in which the Titans had the better of, a brace of penalties for Tom Eaton and Simon Binns sent the teams in all square at six apiece. Had David Strettle’s “try” on 34 minutes not been disallowed for a foot in touch, perhaps the final outcome would have been different?
The second forty was virtually played in the Rotherham half and although Roth battled and defended with commitment, rarely did they threaten to score. Indeed they didn’t, instead they conceded twenty unanswered points to a better team on the day.
The first of Otley’s two tries came from right wing Chris Hall on 67 minutes after a missed tackle from Michael Wood proved costly. The second also came from a Roth error.
On 72 minutes former Roth legend Dave Scully put in a box kick near the right touch and in difficult conditions Anthony Elliott fumbled his catch and knocked on to the onrushing Hall who galloped 30 metres before offloading to replacement centre Kyle Dench who ran under the posts unchallenged to kill of the game.
Ex Roth fly half Simon Binns converted both tries and added two more 2nd half penalties to bring his match tally to 16 points.
Post match Andy Northey said, “I knew this morning when I drew the curtains and saw that it was raining my heart sank. We know we are not that sort of side. We’d done a lot of work in the week on moving the ball around and working on a game plan to beat Otley.
“We were pretty good first half and had lots of pressure, but you have to turn that pressure into points, as Otley did second half. The conditions worsened after the break and that didn’t suit us, but that’s out of our control and that’s not an issue.
“But then we got on the wrong end of the penalty count and turned ball over. Therefore we couldn’t establish any field position, we played from too deep and Otley’s pack got on top and that was the end of that.”
Final Score: Rotherham 6 Otley 26
Roth Admin Man of the Match: Difficult choice, but once again Lee Blackett’s surges in midfield coupled with an outstanding attitude gives him the nod.
Referee: B. Robertson
Scorers: Roth – Eaton 2P. Otley – Hall T, Dench T, Binns 4P 2C.
Rotherham:
15 Anthony Elliott, 14 David Strettle, 13 Peter Jorgensen, 12 Lee Blackett, 11 Michael Wood, 10 Tom Eaton (Benson 64), 9 Jacob Rauluni (Haami 64), 1 Jon Golding (Boulton 73), 2 Richard Emms (Briggs 68), 3 Rod Latham, 4 Opeta Palepoi (Pendlebury 79), 5 Glen Kenworthy (Pike 68), 6 Des Tuiavii, 7 Tu Tamarua (Rice 79), 8 Jannie Bornman.
Replacements:
16 Neil Briggs, 17 Adam Boulton, 18 Nathan Pike, 19 Tom Rice, 20 Jon Pendlebury, 21 Brendan Haami, 22 Jon Benson.
Otley:
15 Ian Shuttleworth, 14 Chris Hall, 13 Robert Whatmuff, 12 Paul Mooney, 11 Waisale Sovatabua, 10 Simon Binns, 9 Dave Scully, 1 Justin Wring, 2 Duncan Sayers, 3 Kris Fullman, 4 Jason Oakes, 5 Scott Connor, 6 James Tiffany, 7 Nathan Bland, 8 Matt Stockdale
Replacements:
16 Andy Brown, 17 Mark Luffman, 18 Ben Fear, 19 Ben Steele, 20 Richard Pike, 21 Kyle Dench, 22 Neil Taylor