National Division 1

2nd December 2006

Earth Arena

Kick Off 2.00pm

Titans 56

Coventry 10

V

Earth Titans

15 Mike Whitehead, 14 Brian Tuohy, 13 Brendan Burke (Turnbull 60), 12 Bernard Hennessey (Blackwood 56), 11 Jon Feeley, 10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Joe Bedford (Capt), 1 Stuart Corsar (Carey 51) 2 Nigel Conroy (Hanna 66), 3 Adam Hopcroft (Croall 51), 4 Jannie Bornman (Lund 66), 5 Louis McGowan, 6 Hendre Fourie (Cochrane 51), 7 Barry Jacobsz, 8 Michael McComish.

Replacements: 16 Steve Croall, 17 Erik Lund, 18 Neil Hanna, 19 Jarleth Carey, 20 Neil Cochrane, 21 Andrew Turnbull, 22 Jamie Blackwood.

Coventry

15 Russell, 14 K. Johnson, 13 Dixon, 12 Sanders, 11 Takarangi, 10 Dorrian, 9 Walls, 1 Treston, 2 Friswell, 3 Brits, 4 Tonkin, 5 Nimmo,  6 T. Johnson, 7 O’Connor, 8 W. Johnson

Replacements:

16 Rimmer, 17, Rheeders, 18 Protherhough, 19 Venter, 20 James, 21 Bingham, 22 Toft.

Post match Andre Bester said, “The game was never in doubt, although we did loose some structure in the second half. Alex (McCloy) is the guy who’s made the decisions and when the game was out of sight he replaced certain players.

“With the loss of structure, the game lost some of its entertainment value and I don’t think we played well, but it was a good result and we got the five points.

Bester went on to sing the praises of Alex McCloy who made the match-day decisions in his absence, “I’ve known Alex for nine years and he’s been very close to me in that period in terms of his coaching. And the one thing that’s critically important when you work with somebody is that you trust that person. You also have to have a similar approach and view towards the game.

“Alex has a great future in terms of his coaching; he’s tactically and technically very astute. He’s one of the best out there and I don’t take any one along with me who can’t be the best. He has the potential to be a great, great coach and the plan is for Alex to work with me next year.”

The game itself saw a rampant Rotherham chalk up another 50 point plus win, their third of the season. However it was Coventry who got the score board moving first on five minutes, when open side flank John O’Connor crashed through some weak defending to touch down. Ben Russell tagged on the extras to give the visitors a 7-0 lead.

Rotherham responded by upping the pace and before the first quarter of the match had elapsed; they had scored three tries themselves. First Nigel Conroy showed good pace on the right wing to squeeze through and score near the posts, after some fine work from Mike Whitehead.

Then an interception allowed Jon Feeley to demonstrate his excellent pace as he raced 60 metres to score under the posts. This time it was Gareth Steenson on hand to create the opportunity.

And on 19 minutes the Roth pack secured what is fast-becoming their customary Penalty try from a five metre scrum. Although to be fair to Coventry they were down to 14 men as loose head prop Niall Treston was in the sin-bin.

Coventry full back Ben Russell nibbled into Roth lead on 26 minutes with a nicely taken penalty, after Roth had been pinged for not rolling away at a ruck.

However Roth’s dominance was apparent to all, particularly in the forwards. As a result of this Coventry were forced to keep on giving away penalties. Perhaps then, it should not have been much of a surprise on 38 minutes when Cov’s Treston received his 2^nd yellow card and therefore a red for persistent infringing.

From the restart Roth set up a driving maul near the visitor’s line and Hendre Fourie was driven over for his 9^th try of the season and what in effect was the bonus point try.

Coventry appeared to come out for the second half all fired up and retained possession well, recycling the ball effectively through quite a few phases. Once again however Rotherham responded, this time with four tries in a fifteen minute spell.

First Brendan Burke showed tremendous pace and movement to score. Then Mike McComish emerged from the bottom of a maul to collect his 6^th try of the season. Not a bad return for a guy making only his 6^th start of the season.

Next up was Brian Tuohy who once again showed good pace after Barry Jacobsz did well to feed him the ball. Tuohy appears to be in a race with Fourie for top Roth try scorer – both of them are on nine.

Roth’s final score came on the hour mark through Barry Jacobsz. Good work from both backs and forwards saw the ball arrive with Jacobsz who proceeded to smash his way through the Coventry defence to score in front of the clubhouse end.

Another special mention for Gareth Steenson as he once again executed 100% accuracy with the boot. This time the young Ulsterman achieved eight out of eight.

Full Time: Rotherham 56-10 Coventry

Other Nat 1 fixtures this weekend

National Division 1

Otley v Roth 9 December at Cross Green
.

kick off 2.00pm