National Division 1

27th January 2007

Clifton Lane

Titans 43

Bees 5

Earth Titans

15 Mike Whitehead, 14 Brian Tuohy, 13 Showan Smith, 12 Shane Stewart (Blackwood 61), 11 Errie Claassens, 10 Gareth Steenson (Turnbull 64), 9 Joe Bedford (Capt) (Kirkwood 68), 1 Sam Walsh (Carey 61), 2 Neil Hanna, 3 Adam Hopcroft (Conroy 71), 4 Jannie Bornman, 5 Louie McGowan, 6 Hendre Fourie (McComb 76), 7 Barry Jacobsz, 8 Neil Cochrane (Hennessey 61).

Replacements: 16 Jarleth Carey, 17 Gareth McComb, 18 Nigel Conroy, 19 Bernard Hennessey 20 Michael Kirkwood, 21 Andrew Turnbull, 22 Jamie Blackwood.

Pertemps Bees

15 Jon Goodridge, 14 Brodie Henderson, 13 Tristan Davies, 12 Simon Martin, 11 Matt Nuthall, 10 Rod Petty, 9 Reece Spee, 1 Neil Fowkes, 2 Stewart Pearl, 3 Emyr Lewis, 4 Mark Gabey, 5 Mark Cornwell (Capt), 6 Dean Miller, 7 Akapusi Qera, 8 Will Matthews.

Replacements: 16 Alex Davidson, 17 Brendan Lynch, 18 Mark George, 19 Rosario Halavatau, 20 Matt Miles, 21 Mike Baxter, 22 Kyle Palm.

Post match Titans Head Coach Andre Bester commented, “The pitch was harder and the drier weather allowed us to play a more expansive type of game. I think currently we have guys all over the pitch that can rip defences to pieces.”

Bester then purred at his bench options when he continued, “Having Jamie Blackwood, Andrew Turnbull and Michael Kirkwood on the bench who can change matches with the way that they play is great for us. Also having Bernard Hennessey on the bench, a centre that can play in the back row, suddenly gives us plenty of options.

As the final third of the season is embarked upon Bester highlighted the importance of each game, “We’ve come more or less to where we want to be, we’ve got nine matches remaining and all of them will be like Cup Finals to us. Next week at Nottingham will be critical for us, as was this match today.

“We didn’t play as well as we wanted, our scrums weren’t good, our line out was ok not great and our ball was too slow in general play. But we did show good work in our counter-attacking play, guys running well off each other and one on ones. I also thought our back three played very well today.”

Rotherham had beforehand anticipated a tough game and this was demonstrated after three minutes of the contest, when unusually Roth elected to kick a penalty to take the three points.

Five minutes later and Roth extended their lead. Good work from Claassens and Whitehead found an in-form Showan Smith; he drew the last man before off-loading to Steenson on the wing who had enough pace to dive over next to the flag for an unconverted try.

Bees battled back well and Roth had to display great tenacity to keep them out on two occasions. Although it was always felt there was more to come from the hosts. Indeed on the half hour mark a neat interchange from Steenson and Claassens culminated in Smith strolling over for a neatly worked try under the posts.

From this point on Rotherham virtually dominated the remainder of the match against a decent side who made them work hard for everything they got.

Five minutes before the break Neil Cochrane – he had a splendid game – scored his third try of the campaign. From a 5 metre scrum Roth rumbled towards the Bees line and the canny Scot was on hand to touch down from the base. Steenson converted to end the half with Roth holding a 22-0 advantage.

Ten minutes into the second half and Roth secured their bonus point try. Another 5 metre scrum saw Cochrane pick up from the base and release Brian Tuohy on the wing for an easy try for the Irish flyer. Steenson superbly made the conversion from the touchline.

Against the run of play on the hour mark, but nonetheless deserved, the Midlanders scored their only points of the afternoon. A cross-field move which involved Petty, Henderson and Goodridge was culminated in the corner when replacement front rower Matt Miles popped up to score. Henderson missed the conversion.

Roth responded immediately, Brian Tuohy collected just inside the visitors half and galloped forty metres to score his 13^th try of the season. Yet again Steenson majestically made the difficult conversion. Five minutes from time Claassens – having his best game for a while - picked a fine line to round things off with a try under the sticks. Whitehead converted and it was job done and chalk up another five pointer.

Final Score: Rotherham 43-5 Bees

A pleased Man of the match Mike Whitehead said afterwards, “I think it was the most complete performance we’ve put together all season. I’ve just spoke to Joe (Bedford) and he thinks the same. I can’t think of any period in the game where we weren’t on top or we weren’t dominating. So from that point of view I’m quite happy.

“Perhaps if there is one criticism, from my point of view is maybe we didn’t put enough points on the board in the first half. I thought we were a try short of what I would have been really happy with at the break. Other than that I think we’ll be happy with that performance.”

Mike went on to explain how things are going for him at full back, “I was perhaps a little bit wary before, but I’ve sat down with Andre and we’ve looked at various videos and I give a lot of credit to him for me doing well there. I don’t think I play full back completely conventionally, I try to step into first receiver a lot which is what we’ve talked about. I am happy there and I feel I’m playing some of my best rugby there.”

Finally, Mike was not getting carried away with what may lay ahead, “I know it’s a cliché, but we are just taking it one game at a time. I honestly couldn’t tell you who we are playing in three games time. We’ve got Nottingham on Sunday and that’s going to be one heck of a tough game. We’ve got to beat them before we start worrying about who we’ve got to beat in four or five games time.”

Attendance: 1232

Other Weekend Results

Sat 27 January 07

Bedford 49-3 Waterloo
London Welsh 28-18 Coventry
Moseley 25-16 Otley
Plymouth Albion 13-20 Exeter
Sedgley Park 20-27 Leeds

Sun 28 January 07

 
Cornish Pirates v Doncaster
Nottingham v Newbury

National Division 1

Nottingham v Rotherham - SUNDAY 4th February at Meadow Lane.

kick off 2.00pm