National Division 1

25th November 2006

Earth Arena

Kick Off 2.00pm

Titans 52

Moseley 3

V

Earth Titans

15 Brendan Burke (Whitehead 66), 14 Brian Tuohy (Bedford 60), 13 Tom Allen, 12 Bernard Hennessey (Feeley 53), 11 Errie Claassens, 10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Jamie Blackwood, 1 Sam Walsh (Sutton 53), 2 Neil Hanna (Conroy 66), 3 Steve Croall, 4 Erik Lund (McComb 66), 5 Louis McGowan, 6 Hendre Fourie (Capt), 7 Barry Jacobsz, 8 Michael McComish.

Replacements: 16 Adam Hopcroft, 17 Gareth McComb, 18 Nigel Conroy, 19 Jamie Sutton, 20 Jon Feeley, 21 Mike Whitehead, 22 Joe Bedford

Moseley

15 Lennard, 14 O'leary, 13 Cox, 12 Buckley, 11 Gray, 10 Thomas, 9 Knight, 1 Buxton, 2 Bick, 3 Bayliss, 4 Hadley, 5 Stott, 6 Lightowler, 7 McIntosh, 8 Evans.

Replacements: 16 Coles, 17 Lea, 18 Skelding, 19 Daniell, 20 Hunter, 21 Warren, 22 Holder.

Post match Andre Bester commented, “The conditions made it difficult and awkward and that’s why we played a specific type of game in those conditions. We knew it wasn’t going to be a wide, expansive, backs type of game. But everybody played well today.

“I thought this game had one name all over it and that was Captain Courageous – Hendre Fourie. I thought Shrek was just unbelievable once again; he personifies what I see in a rugby player. He never takes no for an answer and he’s always there for you in the trenches.

“In the first half against the wind we played very well, in the second half with the wind, we over complicated a few things. When the game went to uncontested scrums early in the second half it just destroyed everything for us. This should have been an 80 point match and it would have been had the scrums been contested.”

Despite Bester’s frustration at not scoring more points, the victory nudges Roth up into second spot in the division after Pirates surprising defeat up at Otley.

In this one however, Roth got off to a blistering start and was 14-0 to the good after just 7 minutes. First Captain Courageous crashed over after a series of pick and drives. Then Jacobsz touched down under the posts after some neat work from Hennessey and Touhy.

Moseley did register three points through an Olly Thomas penalty on ten minutes, after Roth had been pinged for holding on.

However on 20 minutes normal service was resumed when Errie Claassens scored his first try of the season. Claassens will need to thank Jacobsz for some deft work in creating the opportunity.

Just after the half hour mark an outrageous dummy from Steenson bought by two Moseley defenders creating an opening for the much improved Bernard Hennessey. Hennessey then showed god speed to race off and cut through to score under the sticks.

Deep into first half injury time the ever increasing influential Mike McComish scored his 5th try of the season as Roth pushed over from a five metre scrum.

Just nine minutes into the second half and Brendan Burke touched down in the corner after a move started by Jamie Blackwood and which also involved Tom Allen.

On 53 minutes the game descended into farce after referee Roberts had no choice but to order uncontested scrums. Moseley’s starting front row had all gone off injured. There’s a growing argument within the game that you should loose a man when you go to uncontested scrums.

Moseley rallied a little, no doubt relieved at releasing some of the pressure that the scrums had brought on them. And although for five minutes or so they retained possession very well, at no time did they enter the Rotherham red zone.

A spate of Rotherham substitutions occurred midway through the second half and Joe Bedford was one of these. Within no time at all super-sub Joe helped himself to two tries. The tries were almost identical as he collected from the rear of the maul and peeled off to score from close range showing good speed and strength. Gareth Steenson had another good day with the boot scoring 6 out of eight.

Full Time: Rotherham 52-3 Moseley

Other Nat 1 fixtures this weekend

National Division 1

Roth v Coventry 2 December at the Earth Arena
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kick off 2.00pm