By Roth Admin
January 24 2005

Rotherham put on their best display for some time by thrashing London Welsh 43-13 at Clifton Lane. Roth collected the full 5 points and scored 7 tries along the way, with their forwards dominating the game and chipping in with six out of the seven tries. Andy Northey afterwards played down the victory and his input so far when saying, “It was a good overall performance and I was pleased with the forwards, however there are still lots to work on.

“How much credit can I take? – None! Orrell and London Welsh are not the type of teams who you get too exited about beating – they’re not season turnaround results. But what is pleasing is that we’ve played 80 minutes for both games. There have been patches when we have made too many errors and we’ve decided we are going to be a lot harder on ourselves. We came out of the Orrell game and we weren’t happy with the level of mistakes and the performance. So we were hard on ourselves last week.

“Again this week whilst we’ve got the 5 points we’ve got to be harder on ourselves because there were times when we made errors and went away from what we were doing well. Next week we’ve got the Devon trip – Plymouth away – and they’re riding high at the top of the table. I’m not saying we are going to win down there, but we’ll have a real go and see if we can produce a performance.”

Despite Northey’s low key appraisal he will no doubt be privately pleased with the Titans overall performance. Just 3 minutes in against London Welsh and skipper Des Tuiavii went over for his first league try for the club. Eaton converted.

Welsh narrowed the gap on 11 minutes with a Mike Whitehead penalty but Roth stormed back and after Tuiavii stole Welsh ball, the dominant Roth pack drove forward and Opeta Palepoi was the man on hand to score near the posts. Eaton disappointed with the conversion attempt.

Whitehead knocked over another penalty on 31 minutes for the visitors but this did little to repel the ever increasing dominant home pack. Three minutes later and a move that started on halfway was taken on first by Wood who broke through and then cut back inside to feed along the line to first Blackett, then Jorgensen and then finally Briggs who popped up on the wing to go over near the corner for an unconverted try.

On half time the visitor’s number 8 Lee Starling was shown the yellow card for preventing Rotherham quick ball. A minute later Roth took full advantage of their numerical advantage. From line out ball near the Welsh line Roth spread the ball infield, good work from Palepoi was rounded off with Briggs popping up again for his second try of the game. Eaton missed the conversion.

Half time: Rotherham 22 London Welsh 6

After the restart Rotherham continued where they left off. Roth turned Welsh ball over and a quick powerful move from Tamarua, Bornman and Blackett found Pete Jorgensen on hand to score an excellent converted try.

Just after the hour mark and Roth Admin man of the match Jon Golding scored Roth’s 6th try of the afternoon. Again it followed excellent work from the Roth pack, this time Bornman’s strength was key to the move. Eaton made the conversion.

On 66 minutes Colm Hannon received Welsh’s 2nd yellow card of the day, this time for infringing at a ruck. Credit must be given to London Welsh though, despite being outplayed for the better part of the game, they never stopped trying to play rugby. And three minutes from time Dylan Pugh scored a well deserved consolation try for Welsh. Whitehead made the conversion.

However deep into stoppage time Pendlebury was bundled over by his pack for Roth’s 7th try of the match. Lee Blackett stepped up to take the conversion and successfully knocked it into the middle of next week.


Final Score: Rotherham 43 London Welsh 13


This was Rotherham’s best performance for quite some time with the forwards and backs gelling very well together. All worked tirelessly for the full 80 minutes and everyone contributed to the success.

So it’s two out of two for Andy Northey – what a marvellous start to his career as head coach. Maybe Andy wasn’t getting too carried away because Roth’s next test is away at high flying Plymouth. Maybe there’s more to him than just his coaching abilities?

However if Roth can build on the last two performances, who’s to say they won’t return from Devon with a surprise victory and keep the rookie Northey’s 100% record in tact?


Roth Admin Man of the Match: Jon Golding – Excellent work both in the set scrum and in the loose.

Referee: D. Rose


Rotherham Titans
15. Michael Wood, 14. Jason Keyter (Morley 69), 13. Peter Jorgenson, 12. Lee Blackett, 11. David Strettle, 10. Tom Eaton, 9. Jacob Rauluni, 1. Jon Golding (Lynch 77), 2. Neil Briggs (Emms 56), 3. John Rawson (Latham 63), 4. Opeta Palepoi , 5. Glen Kenworthy (Pendlebury 72), 6. Des Tuiavii (c) (West 77), 7, Tu Tamarua (Haami 80), 8. Jannie Bornman

Replacements
16. Richard Emms, 17. Rod Latham, 18. Brendan Lynch, 19. Craig West, 20. Jon Pendlebury, 21. Brendan Haami, 22. Gareth Morley


London Welsh
15. Mike Whitehead, 14. James Strong, 13. Adam Bidwell, 12. Steve Ravenscroft, 11. John Swords, 10. Dylan Pugh, 9. Robbie Shaw, 1. Steve Millard, 2. Chris Ritchie (c), 3. Lorne Ward, 4. Adam Slade, 5. Chris Waring, 6. Dave Ramsey, 7. Paul Mansfield, 8. Lee Starling
Replacements:
16. Colm Hannon, 17. Matt Baker, 18. Paul Cox, 19. Martin Anayi, 20. Owain Walbyoff, 21. Matt Cannon, 22. Matt Vines