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Pertemps Bees

V

Earth Titans

National Division 1

12th November 2005

Sharmans Cross Road

Kick Off 12.30

There are injury concerns over David Strettle and John Rawson this week as Andre Bester names a squad of 23.

If John Rawson doesn’t make it Attie Pienaar will step in and if David Strettle fails his test, either Gareth Brear or ND Monye will get an opportunity to impress.

Man of the season so far Chris Hala’ufia is unavailable as he’s on International duty for the next two weeks.

Possible Starting 15

15 Carter, 14 Strettle, 13 Mitchell, 12 Blackett (Capt), 11 Claassens, 10 WP Strauss, 9 Bedford, 1 Golding, 2 Conroy, 3 Rawson, 4 Bornman, 5 McGowan, 6 Fourie, 7 Cochrane, 8 Donald

Replacements From

Whitehead, Kirkwood, ND Monye, Brear, Carey, Hanna, Pienaar, McComb

The Pertemps Bess squad is to be announced later today.

Titans, currently sixth in the table, will travel South for the early kick off (12.30) brimming with confidence. If results go their way they can climb into fourth spot come Saturday evening.

With only one away win all season Rotherham are keen to collect more points on the road. Looking ahead to Saturday, Titans Head Coach Andre Bester said, “It’s going to be very tough down there; their league position doesn’t reflect how well they’ve been performing. They are a team that is very hard in the contact situation and we’ll need to be very tidy in all areas of our game.

“It doesn’t concern me that we’ve only had one away win so far. We’ve played pretty well away from home in patches. We beat Coventry, Bedford could have gone either way and second half at Nottingham was pleasing.

“I’m not happy though at the early kick off, we are the only ones affected. We appealed to First Division Rugby, but they turned us down. I think it’s ridiculous!”

With only two wins this season and languishing in 12^th spot, Bees are short on confidence. But they are not to be underestimated, fly half Ben Harvey has a good strike rate with the boot and will punish penalties conceded within kicking distance.

Wing Nick Baxter has plenty of pace and will exploit any lapses in defence and full back Dave Knight with three tries this season, runs intelligent lines and must be monitored closely.

However if Rotherham continue their improvement, the minimum requirement will be four points. Providing they are mentally “switched on” they shouldn’t be any disappointment.

Roth Admin Prediction: Roth by 8

Roth 70-12 Halifax (Cup)

Cleckheaton 10-61 Bees (Cup)

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