By Roth Admin
December 12 2004

Rotherham returned home pointless after being heavily beaten 41-17 by Exeter. It was the most points that Rotherham have conceded in over 7 years at this level. Rotherham worked hard and scored some brilliant tries – however the big abrasive Exeter pack were always going to determine the outcome. It looked ominous from the start for Rotherham when after a period of forward pressure Exeter full back Graydon Staniforth cut through to go over in the corner on 6 minutes. Tony Yapp slotted over the difficult conversion for a 7-0 lead.

Rotherham however fought back well and two scintillating tries by David Strettle on 18 and 21 minutes gave Rotherham a deserved lead.

The first try was started with an excellent break in midfield by Oriol Ripol who then found Peter Jorgensen on his shoulder – Jorgensen then threw a long pass wide to the onrushing Strettle whose blistering pace was enough to race over the line next to the corner flag. Pez made the tricky conversion to level at 7-7.

Strettle’s 2nd try was created by Jorgensen who broke through the Exeter defence at speed and then threw a long miss-pass out to the Flying winger. Once again Strettle’s speed enabled him to gallop pass the Chief’s defence and touch down near the posts. Remarkably Pez missed the conversion and Roth went in at the break 12-7 ahead.

From the restart Roth knocked on and this led to a 20 minute period of Exeter pressure where Rotherham virtually never touched the ball. On 44 minutes after some desperate Roth defending on their own line, Des Tuiavii received a yellow card for being deliberately offside.

While down to 14 men Rotherham conceded 14 points! Two tries on 46 and 49 minutes from Richard Baxter and Tony Walker were converted by Yapp. The tries came from relentless and powerful forward play. When Tuiavii came back on Roth were defending a five metre scrum – from the scrum once again the powerful pack drove over Daniel Porte for a converted try.

21 points had been scored in a little over 10 minutes and effectively the game had been taken away from Rotherham!

Yapp kicked a penalty on 63 minutes to increase the host’s advantage to 31-12. Rotherham though showed great character and kept working and trying to play rugby. Another brilliant break by Ripol on 67 minute saw him make 30 metres and then offload to Peter Jorgensen who showed good pace and strength to go over near the left hand corner for an unconverted try.

Four minutes from time Yapp scored with a drop goal and 3 minutes into injury time Yapp converted his own try to bring his match tally to 21 and the final score to 41-17.

The old cliché of forwards wining games was never more true than today. Although Exeter were one dimensional it was very effective. On this form it’s difficult to imagine them losing any game at the County Ground this season and they must be realistic candidates for the Championship.

Rotherham on the other hand has to be realistic of how far they can go this season. Although a top four position is certainly not out of the question - and who at the club would not have settled for that back in September? Roth will also take encouragement with the performance and development of their backs. Although this defeat is a setback, Roth are not too far away from creating a title chasing squad.


Roth Admin Man of the Match: Oriol Ripol – Showed glimpses of brilliance with two quality breaks resulting in two tries.

Referee: Bruce Robertson


Rotherham
15 Anthony Elliott, 14 Oriol Ripol, 13 Peter Jorgensen, 12 Lee Blackett, 11 David Strettle, 10 Ramiro Pez (Eaton 77), 9 Brendan Haami (Rauluni 64), 1 Jon Golding (Latham 77), 2 Richard Emms (Briggs), 3 Colin Noon (Rawson 61), 4 Opeta Palepoi, 5 Jonathon Pendlebury, 6 Des Tuiavii, 7 Craig Short (C), 8 Jannie Bornman

Replacements.
16 Neil Briggs, 17 John Rawson, 18 Rod Latham, 19 Mike Schmid, 20 Jacob Rauluni, 21 Tom Eaton, 22 Michael Wood

Exeter
15, Graydon Staniforth, 14 Ed Lewsey, 13 Junior Fatialofa, 12 Mark Fatialofa, 11 Gary Kingdom, 10 Tony Yapp, 9 Haydon Thomas, 1 Danny Porte, 2 Sam Blythe, 3 George Davis, 4 Chris Bentley, 5 Rob Baxter ©, 6 Tony Walker, 7 Gary Willis, 8 Richard Baxter

Replacements
16 Keith Brooking, 17 Richard Liddington, 18 Dave Sims, 19 Alan Miller, 20 Stephen Ward, 21 Alistair Murdoch, 22 Adam Staniforth