Nottingham 41 Earth Titans 28

Mike Whitehead
By Stefan
September 6 2005

THE Titans almost pulled off a remarkable second half turnaround but first half lapses, in which the defence was repeatedly breached, left them with far too much to do.

Slack and inept defending, a major worry in the pre-season friendlies, allowed Nottingham too much space in an awful first half-hour.

The Titans' poor tackling was embarrassing and tries by Tim Molenaar, Ben Thompson, Alistair Warnock and David Jackson in five, 20, 25 and 26 minutes, all converted by fly half Warnock, made a mockery of pre-season preparations.

A 28-0 score after 30 minutes left Bester's charges with a mountain to climb. However, Nottingham were not to have it all their way.

The Titans mounted periods of pressure on the try line in which the pack drove over twice only to be denied by Referee, Chris Sharp, who judged that the ball had not been grounded properly.

Sustained pressure on the Nottingham line for about 10 minutes forced a series of penalties resulting in a yellow card for the Nottingham Hooker for constant infringing. The pressure eventually yielded a result when a turnover in the Nottingham 22 allowed the Titans' fly half, Mike Whitehead, to go over under the posts to claim his first try of the season, which he converted on 42 minutes.

From the re-start, Nottingham counter attacked and in a flash, chaos in the Titans' defence allowed the home side scrumhalf, Tom Richardson, to score their converted fifth try just before the break.

Earth Titans, overwhelmed in the first half, put together an excellent recovery in the second, but Nottingham, once they were ahead 35-7 at the break, were unlikely ever to lose.

The second half was heartening, the Titans stepped up their intensity, played with purpose and the defence stemmed the flow of tries.

The pack resumed its first-half onslaught and Nottingham's stout defence was not able to prevent a sharp drive near the try line opening up a gap for Dave Strettle to score wide right from 5 yards out on 43 minutes, Mike Whitehead landing the difficult conversion.

Two further converted tries were added by Scott Donald on 58 minutes and Errie Claasens on 66 minutes. Nottingham's reply, a penalty on 63 minutes, made the score 38-28 with 14 minutes left on the clock; The Titans were back in contention and a remarkable turnaround was on the cards.

The Donald try was a beauty, a Whitehead break allowed replacement Chris Hala'Ufia to get behind the defence creating an opening for Donald run in, from out wide, under the posts. The Claasens try was created by another piece on Whitehead magic, a precise cross-field kick found fullback Claasens clear behind the home defence.

The Titans' momentum was stifled by a series of poor lineouts and a Nottingham penalty on 78 minutes effectively closed out the game; alas, the turnaround was not to be.

The Titans' response after the first half-hour showed that they have the capability to be an outstanding side. The vastly improved second half defence, notably with lots of talking in the backs and the expansive style of rugby they produced together with their ability to get behind the defence demonstrates the potential they have.

The Titans could not be faulted for their character and determination and after a disastrous start produced a number of notable performances on the day.

All four props used had good games, Chris Hala'Ufia made a big impact in the second half and Scott Donald's work-rate looked impressive. In the backs, Errie Claasens produced some solid running and clever passing, scrumhalf Joe Bedford looked sharp and precise.

Fly half Mike Whitehead was man of the match by a country mile. He put in a near perfect display having a hand in all of the scores, he was creative and at times his kicking was sublime.

Referee: Chris Sharp (RFU)

Man of the Match: Mike Whitehead

Titans Scorers: M.Whitehead (1T 4C), D.Strettle (1T), S.Donald (1T), E.Claasens (1T).

Yellow Card: Jarleth Carey (17 min.)

Earth Titans

15 Errie Claasens; 14 David Strettle, 13 Lee Blackett (Capt.) (Tom Allen 66), 12 WP Strauss, 11 Anthony Carter; 10 Mike Whitehead, 9 Joe Bedford; 1 Jarleth Carey (Jon Golding 52), 2 Neil Hanna (Adam Hopcroft 78), 3 Attie Pienaar (John Rawson 40), 4 Louis McGowan (Gareth McComb 78), 5 Rob Walton, 6 Hendré Fourie (Chris Hala'Ufia 40), 7 Neil Cochrane, 8 Scott Donald.

Nottingham Scorers: A.Warnock (1T 2P 5C), T.Molenaar (1T), B.Thompson (1T), D.Jackson (1T), T.Richardson (1T)

Yellow Cards: Sam Raven (17 min.), Alex Loney (39 min.)

Nottingham

15 Ben Thompson; 14 David Jackson, 13 Tom Wyles, 12 Tim Molenaar, 11 William Logan; 10 Alistair Warnock, 9 Tom Richardson; 1 Neil Fowes, 2 Alex Loney), 3 Tonga Lea'Aetoa, 4 Paul Arnold, 5 Sam Raven, 6 Craig Hammond, 7 David Wilks, 8 Nick Fitsemanu.

Replacements: Peter Cook, Joe Duffy, Graham Chenoweth, Adam Corcoran, Neil Stenhouse, Spencer Brown, Alan Cook.