Doncaster 35-34 Titans

By Roth Admin
April 15 2006

Match Report is courtesy of Michael Temple from the clubs official Website at www.rotherhamrugby.co.uk Earth Titans Head Coach Andre Bester berated his side’s ‘dreadful defence’ after watching Doncaster dash his hopes of a derby double.

The Titans finished strongly, eventually losing 35-34 after trailing 28-13 at half-time, but Whitehead’s injury time conversion bought the game to a close and a proud record in this fixture to an end.

The ten-minute period that followed the sin-binning of former Titan Charlie Harrison was a microcosm of an error-strewn 80 minutes in which the Titans persistently knocked-on, missed kicks and failed to capitalise on half chances.

“The bottom line is that we didn’t deserve to win,” said Bester.

“It is a very difficult part of the season because some of the players are staying and some are going but we know where we want to go. We didn’t score tries in situations where we should have today.

“I was disappointed with some of the officiating and in particular we feel that Tom Allen was not in touch and the try that he scored should have stood.”

Mike Whitehead opened the scoring with a first minute penalty but after Llyr Lane’s try for the hosts, the Titans never led.

Whitehead put on a strong running performance but had two long passes intercepted and missed a simple penalty in the second-half after slotting comfortably from an unthinkable angle before the break.

Rob Liley converted a second Doncaster try before Chris Hala’Ufia, an early replacement for the injured Neil Cochrane, handed off and fed Gillan Carruthers who scored.

But Doncaster re-asserted themselves with an opportunist try finished off by Oliver Cook after Scott Donald had dropped the ball on contact and an injury time score from Donovan van Vuuren.

Simultaneous injuries to WP Strauss and Hendre Fourie, who crashed over the try-line early in the second-half, forced a re-shuffle on the hour mark as Tom Allen and Gareth McComb joined the action and Jannie Bornman moved into the back row.

But the forwards were unable to stop the Doncaster pack driving Grainger over the line for what proved to be the decisive try. Jon Benson added the conversion.

Top scorer Scott Donald added his usual try after a neat show and go as he exploited a two on one on the left wing.

Errie Claassens closed the gap to three points after he ran through the Doncaster cover to score the final try of the game but Whitehead’s conversion left the Titans a point short of parity and left them to reflect on a disappointing afternoon.