Exeter

V

Titans

National Division 1

11th January 2006

County Ground

Kick Off 3.00pm

Rotherham Head Coach Andre Bester makes 6 changes (One positional) to the starting fifteen that beat Nottingham last week.

In the backs, Tom Allen makes his first start since September after recovering from a knee injury. Joe Bedford is back at scrum-half and Mike Whitehead returns at fly-half. It is Whitehead’s first start since the Otley game just after Christmas and Ledowyk Strauss moves to outside centre to make way for his return.

In the pack Tim Maslanyk retains his spot in the second row after a solid performance against Nottingham. But Hanna and Hopcroft come in for Conroy and Rawson as the front row rotation policy continues.

Chris Hala’Ufia returns from injury and has a spot on the bench. Captain Lee Blackett is provisionally on the bench, but there’s doubt he’ll play after sustaining a knock to his head last week. Therefore blind side flanker Neil Cochrane will have the honour of skippering the side.

Earth Titans: 15 Errie Claassens, 14 Tom Allen, 13 Ledowyk Strauss, 12 WP Strauss, 11 John Holtby, 10 Mike Whitehead, 9 Joe Bedford, 1 Jon Golding, 2 Neil Hanna, 3 Adam Hopcroft, 4 Jannie Bornman, 5 Tim Maslanyk, 6 Hendre Fourie 7 Neil Cochrane (Capt), 8 Scott Donald

Replacements From

Morne Jonker, Gareth Brear, Lee Blackett, Gareth McComb, John Rawson, Nigel Conroy, Chris Hala’Ufia, Sam Walsh.

Exeter: 15 Stephen Ward 14 Jason Luff 13 Junior Fatialofa 12 Mark Fatialofa 11 Gary Kingdom 10 Tony Yapp 9 Kevin Barrett 1 Stephen Bennett 2 Sam Blythe (C) 3 George Davis 4 Chris Bentley 5 Ian Brown 6 Gary Willis 7 Alan Miller 8 Richard Baxter

Replacements

16 Simon Jenkins 17 Richard Liddington 18 Mark Gabey 19 Tony Walker 20 Ian Wilson 21 Adam Staniforth 22 Alistair Murdoch

Rotherham go into the game in good form, having won nine of their last twelve games in all competitions and last week’s victory over a capable Nottingham side will have boosted the Titans confidence further.

However, any trip these days to the South West ensures a difficult game and Exeter are certain to prove stiff opposition. Exeter’s victory over Roth last month in the cup will serve as timely reminder of that fact.

If Roth are to overcome Exeter they’ll need to gain an edge up front, not just in the set pieces, but also in open play. Additionally the first-up tackling from Roth must be spot on. Last month when the teams met, the Chiefs had the edge in the rucks and mauls and some of Roth’s tackling was fragile at times.

Exeter come into the game on the back of an excellent performance last time out, having beaten Cornish Pirates 23-16 away from home. The Chiefs have won three out of the last five and are looking to close the gap on both Plymouth and Roth.

Obvious danger men for Exeter are outside centre Junior Fatialofa – who scored a hat trick of tries against Roth last month – and Tony Yapp, the 29 year old former England “A” fly-half. Yapp currently leads the Division’s “kicking strike rate” with an impressive 87% success-rate.

The teams have met on 13 previous league occasions, with Roth holding a 9-4 advantage. But you have to go back to March 2002 to find Roth’s last victory at the County Ground. This maybe Roth’s last opportunity to do so, as Exeter plan to move to a new purpose built Stadium for the start of next season.

Roth Admin Prediction: Roth by 3

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