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Titans

National Division 1

28th January 2006

Brickfields Recreational Ground

Kick Off 2.15pm

Andre Bester makes four changes to the starting fifteen that convincingly beat Cornish Pirates at Clifton Lane last week.

Just one change in the backs sees Joe Bedford come in at scrum half for Morne Jonker. In the forwards there’s partial front row rotation with Hanna and Rawson coming in for Conroy and Hopcroft. Golding retains the one shirt as Jarleth Carey recovers from a neck injury he picked up at Exeter in the cup.

The other change is in the second row where Gareth McComb replaces Louis McGowan. Chris Hala’ufia is still unavailable for selection as he is still recovering from a shoulder injury.

There’s a slight doubt over Scott Donald as he has a minor calf injury. If Donald doesn’t play, McComb will go to number eight; McGowan will come in at lock and young local lad Tim Maslanyk will be drafted onto the bench.

Earth Titans: 15 Errie Claassens, 14 David Strettle, 13 WP Strauss, 12 Lee Blackett (Capt), 11 John Holtby, 10 Ledowyk Strauss, 9 Joe Bedford, 1 Jon Golding, 2 Neil Hanna, 3 John Rawson, 4 Jannie Bornman, 5 Gareth McComb, 6 Hendre Fourie 7 Neil Cochrane, 8 Scott Donald

Replacements

16 Morne Jonker, 17 Anthony Carter, 18 Adam Hopcroft, 19 Mike Whitehead, 18 John Rawson, 20 Attie Pienaar, 21 Louie McGowan, 22 Nigel Conroy.  

Plymouth Albion: 15 L Arscott, 14 Sestaret, 13 van Eyk, 12 Fisilau, 11 Saumi, 10 Barnes, 9 Cane, 1 Rice, 2 Pearl, 3 Zimmerman, 4 Rouse, 5 Luxton, 6 Lowrie, 7 Thomas (capt), 8 Hayes.

Replacements: 16 Leung-Wai, 17 Fabian, 18 Albina, 19 Hopkins, 20 Dawe, 21 Lewis, 22 Stroud.

Rotherham are in a rich vein of form right now, having won six of their last seven league games. Subsequently confidence is sky-high in the Roth camp, particularly so, after the six try demolition of Cornish Pirates last week. But the tough games keep on coming and this week Roth make the long journey into Devon to face Graham Dawe’s Plymouth Albion.

Looking ahead to Saturday Head Coach Andre Bester said, “Plymouth will be another difficult game, they have a big, heavy pack of forwards and they like to mix their game up. They play the slow mauling game and then switch it wide and hit you with pace.”

“But I’m only interested in what we do and our performance. This is a learning curve for us this season and everything we do, we do with next season in mind. However if we perform like we know we can and do all the little things right, then the result will take care of itself.”

Albion lay currently fifth in the division equal on points with Rotherham. The Devonians are a fully professional outfit and are always formidable opponents on their own patch.

Albion’s recent form has been mixed with 3 wins in their last five league outings. But on their day and particularly at home, they have had some good results this season. They’ve beaten second placed Bedford and ran Harlequins very close, just losing by seven points.

Danger men for Albion are centre Keni Fisilau who has seven tries this season and ex-Roth favourite Alfie Too’ala. Too’ala is a vital component of a big aggressive pack of forwards and has three tries so far this year.

The teams have met seven times in league history with Roth coming out on top on six occasions. Roth’s only defeat against Albion was last season at Brickfields where the hosts convincingly won by 40-23.

It will be another very tough game for Rotherham, but if they recapture last week’s form against Cornish Pirates, they’ll return north with another sweet victory.  

Roth Admin Prediction: Roth by 5

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