National Division 1

23rd December 2006

Castle Park

Doncaster 15

Titans 9

Earth Titans

15 Mike Whitehead (Tuohy 76), 14 Showan Smith, 13 Brendan Burke (Hennessey 58), 12 Shane Stewart, 11 Errie Claassens, 10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Joe Bedford (Capt) (Blackwood 81), 1 Jarleth Carey (Walsh 23), 2 Neil Hanna (Conroy 76), 3 Adam Hopcroft, 4 Erik Lund, 5 Louie McGowan (McComb 75), 6 Hendre Fourie, 7 Barry Jacobsz (Cochrane 70), 8 Jannie Bornman.

Replacements: 16 Gareth McComb, 17 Sam Walsh, 18 Nigel Conroy, 19 Neil Cochrane, 20 Brian Tuohy, 21 Bernard Hennessey, 22 Jamie Blackwood.

Doncaster

15 Anthony Carter, 14 Ben Gollings, 13 Spencer Davey, 12 John Cannon, 11 Donavan Van Vuuren, 10 Mark Woodrow, 9 Ben Jones, 1 Simon Bunting, 2 Steven Boden, 3 John Rawson, 4 Glen Kenworthy, 5 Luke Gross, 6 Oliver Cook, 7 Jason Forster (Capt), 8 Russell Earnshaw.

Replacements: 16 Ngalusele Ta'u, 17 Ben Phillips, 18 Simon Grainger, 19 Dan Cook, 20 Dave Scully, 21 Bradley Hunt, 22 Netani Talei.

Doncaster named nine former Rotherham players in their squad and used their experience and guile to disrupt the scrum and grind out the win.

Ben Gollings’ try, converted by fly-half Mark Woodrow, put Doncaster 7-0 up inside five minutes but Rotherham rallied after a poor opening 15 minutes, enjoying good spells inside Doncaster’s 22.

Knock-ons, lost line-outs and turnovers put pain to their efforts to cross the try-line but trailing 10-9 after 69 minutes, the game was within their grasp until Forster, Doncaster’s captain and the league’s top try-scorer took his tally to 17 for the season with a try in the left corner.

“We were overawed in the first ten minutes against very experienced players but we worked hard for each other and got back into it,” said Titans Head Coach Andre Bester.

“There was a little bit of tactical naivety but I am happy with the effort of the players.

“Every match is vitally important, the league is far from over and one thing I have learned is that anything can happen.”

Bester’s bold team selection saw Showan Smith recalled on the right wing after recovering from a broken leg, Hendre Fourie was back in at six with Jannie Bornman moving to number eight.

Full-back Mike Whitehead left the field just before time with his eye swollen shut but he hopes to be fit to face Leeds at the Earth Arena next Saturday (kick-off 2pm).

The result leaves the Titans in fourth place, eight points behind Leeds and needing to get back to winning ways if they are to stay in the promotion hunt.

Final Score: Doncaster 15-9 Rotherham

*Report courtesy of Michael Temple.

Attendance: 2497

Other Weekend Results

Sat 23 December 06

Cornish Pirates 13 – 26 Plymouth Albion
Exeter 25 – 11 Newbury
Leeds 30 – 8 Otley
Sedgley Park 37 – 18 Waterloo

Sun 24 December 06

Nottingham 42 – 7 Moseley

Tue 26 December 06

Bedford 35 – 15 London Welsh
Pertemps Bees 22 – 16 Coventry

National Division 1

Rotherham v Leeds - 30 December at the Earth Arena.

kick off 2.00pm