National Division 1

23rd September 2006

Sandy Park

3.00pm

Exeter 27

Titans 22

Earth Titans

15 Whitehead, 14 Touhy, 13 Burke, 12 Hennessey, 11 Turnbull, 10 Steenson, 9 Bedford (Capt); 1 Carey (Croall 14) (Conroy 66), 2 Hanna, 3 Hopcroft, 4 Bornman, 5 McGowan, 6 Fourie, 7 McComish (Head 53), 8 Jacobsz.

Replacements: 16 Lund, 17 Head, 18 Croall, 19 Conroy, 20 Allen, 21 Buchanan, 22 Blackwood

Exeter

15 Kingdom, 14 Luff, 13 Fatilaofa J, 12 Ward, 11 Bedford, 10 Yapp, 9 Barrett, 1 Liddington, 2 Blythe, 3 Horn-Smith, 4 Hanks, 5 Brown, 6 Walker, 7 Miller, 8 Baxter (Capt).

Replacements: 16 Jenkins, 17 Bennett, 18 Hodge, 19 Rickner, 20 Bolt, 21 Staniforth, 22 Fisher.

A game which Roth should have won comfortably was thrown away due to a series of mistakes. Poor line out, poor kicking and missed tackles aplenty were the main reason Roth returned home with a solitary point.

Post match a subdued and very disappointed Andre Bester commented, “I said if we played the same way as we did against Otley we wouldn’t get away with it - and we didn’t. We again played badly, we were very very under par and I thought we were complacent.

“Listen, the fact of the matter is our line out malfunctioned, Jannie’s responsible for the line out and he’ll have to stand up and put up his hands for the line out. The second half we made changes to the line out and it went better, but right at the start it again malfunctioned. You can not play without the ball.

“We kicked badly; we missed an easy penalty and an easy conversion. But tactically we were ahead and we had them on the back foot, then we kicked the ball and we kicked it down their throats. But the instruction was for us to keep the ball, because they were chasing the game and we weren’t.

“It is completely unacceptable and I’ll tell you this, the team will play the way I tell them to play and they didn’t – heads will roll because of this!

“Because if you don’t want to learn and you don’t want to learn the lessons then I’ll just make changes and I will make changes next week. I’m disappointed.

“But it’s a long season and the positive point out of today is we can’t play worse than that again. It was our worse performance of the season by a long way. We got a bonus point but we should have won the game easily.

“I’ll make no secret of the fact, if the other 13 players can play the way Hendre Fourie and Brendan Burke can and throw themselves around the way they do, we would be champions of England in the Premiership, because the two of them are just bleeding the whole time for this club.

“When Hendre went into the front row, every scrum on their ball we turned them over, we pushed them off the ball at every scrum where Hendre was prop. He’s an unbelievable player, just unbelievable!

“But hey, we got a point out of it and to be honest, I don’t think they can play better than that and I don’t think we can play worse.”

After an early period of Exeter pressure it was Roth who scored the first points on 12 minutes. From a line out on the hosts 22 Fourie made an half break, the ball was re-cycled and fed to McComish who crashed over near the corner. Steenson made an excellent conversion to give Roth an early 7-0 lead. Steenson’s successful kick made up for a 5^th minute penalty miss.

At this point Roth’s loose head prop Jarleth Carey had to leave the field with a shoulder injury and his loss was felt throughout the game. Exeter came back strongly and secured the majority of territory and possession. On 21 minutes they were rewarded with a penalty after Roth had infringed at the scrum. Tony Yapp made no mistake with the kick to nibble into Roth’s lead.

On 25 minutes Roth made a rare foray into Exeter’s 22 and gained a scrum just 15 metres out. Joe Bedford sniped up the blind side and drew the tackler before off-loading to Jacobsz who smashed his way through to score near the posts for a fine try. Inexplicably Steenson hit the left upright with the conversion attempt.

Approaching the half hour mark Brendan Burke boomed a massive kick downfield which culminated in a period of good Rotherham pressure. Exeter buckled and conceded a penalty 10 metres in from touch, Steenson stepped up to make a nice conversion and extend Roth’s lead to 15-3.

Roth appeared to be taking control of this keenly contested encounter, but two Exeter tries, one five minutes before the break and the other in first half injury time changed the complexion of the game.

Firstly Exeter’s inside centre Stephen Ward ran 45 metres crashing through missed tackles to score an unconverted try in the corner and then Tony Yapp demonstrated Roth’s ability to miss tackles weren’t a one off, by breezing through to score near the posts. Yapp converted his own try to end the first half.

Half Time: Exeter 15-15 Rotherham

Roth appeared to be asleep at the beginning of the second half as Exeter’s scrum half livewire Kevin Barrett made a 40 metre break. Then a succession of lost Roth line outs gave Exeter the momentum to set up a series of attacks that were very well defended by Roth.

Roth slowly clawed their way back and began to gain parity in terms of possession and territory. Then on the hour mark, a Roth line out inside the hosts 22 was gathered by McGowan. After a series of pick and drives man of the match Hendre Fourie, used his strength to barge over for a converted try and give Roth a 22-15 advantage.

At this point it looked as though Roth would kick on and secure the game with a bonus point try. However that was not to be. Ten minutes from time Exeter full back Gary Kingdom touched down near the flag for an unconverted try to reduce the host’s arrears to just two points.

Then as the game entered into injury time a poor clearance kick invited Exeter to attack. The invitation was accepted and culminated with Jason Luff scoring in the corner after yet again more Roth missed tackles. Yapp made the conversion to give Exeter the lead for the first time in the game.

It was Roth’s turn to chase the game in the time that was left, but as with most teams chasing the game in the dying minutes, this proved to be fruitless.

Final Score: Exeter 27-22 Rotherham

This was a great opportunity missed for Bester’s Rotherham to register their first win in the South West. A little more composure was needed late on; someone needed to calm things down and take control. Bester hit the nail on the head when he said, “tactically we were ahead and we had them on the back foot, then we kicked the ball and we kicked it down their throats. But the instruction was for us to keep the ball, because they were chasing the game and we weren’t.”

Attendance: 2805

Other Weekend Results

Sat 23 September 06

Coventry 15-14 Moseley

Doncaster 43-29 Nottingham

Leeds 21-20 Cornish Pirates

Newbury 19-34 Bedford

Otley 3-36 Plymouth Albion

Sedgley Park 33-34 Pertemps Bees

Waterloo 18-23 London Welsh

National Division 1

Rotherham v Waterloo - 30 September, at the Earth Arena.

kick off 3.00pm