National Division 1

6th January 2007

Clifton Lane

Titans 32

Newbury 15

Earth Titans

15 Brendan Burke, 14 Showan Smith, 13 Tom Allen (Feeley 65), 12 Bernard Hennessey, 11 Errie Claassens, 10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Jamie Blackwood (Kirkwood 87), 1 Jarleth Carey (Walsh 63), 2 Nigel Conroy, 3 Adam Hopcroft (Croall 87), 4 Erik Lund (McComb 39), 5 Louie McGowan, 6 Hendre Fourie (Capt) (Cochrane 87), 7 Barry Jacobsz, 8 Jannie Bornman (Tuohy 87).

Replacements: 16 Steve Croall, 17 Sam Walsh, 18 Gareth McComb, 19 Neil Cochrane, 20 Brian Tuohy, 21 Jon Feeley, 22 Michael Kirkwood.

Newbury

15 Mal Roberts, 14 David Rees, 13 Mark Ireland, 12 Ali James, 11 Martin Nutt, 10 Tim Walsh, 9 Mark Simpson-Daniel, 1 Rob Faulkner, 2 Andrew Dalgleish, 3 Simon Carter, 4 Gregor Hayter (Capt), 5 Tom Radbourne, 6 Richard Thorpe, 7 Chris Morgan, 8 Tom Brown.

Replacements: 16 James Greenwood, 17 Ian Ashcroft-Leigh, 18 Raynn Bruce, 19 Greg Barden, 20 Liam Gibson, 21 Matt Styles, 22 Ken Bingham.

Although not appealing to watch for much of the time, Roth undoubtedly deserved their victory. Brendan Burke had an outstanding game, Showan Smith continues to gain match fitness and the Titans pack was its usual dominant self.

But a slightly disgruntled Andre Bester commented afterwards, “It wasn’t pretty and we missed decision makers, the players need to teach themselves to be leaders on the paddock. You need leaders on the paddock and what we lacked today was leadership.

“If you look at all the top sides in this division they all have leaders and not just one. What we lacked wasn’t the leadership that Shrek provided, it’s that one leader on the pitch is not enough. You have to have fifteen leaders if you want to be a Championship side.

“We didn’t do the simple things well today and the throwing at the line out wasn’t good. But they never looked like scoring and we’ll go away and reflect.”

Bester went on to explain what really matters to him from here on in, “If in the remaining eleven matches I don’t come away with a single positive, but I get five points the whole time, I’ll take it all. That’s what it’s all about now, not the performance, but the result. And I also think we have to accept when we play on this pitch you cannot have an expansive game – it’s as simple as that.”

Titans dominated territory and possession, but found themselves surprisingly twelve apiece at half time. Confusion as to who scored Roth’s first try remain, but the official RFU score sheet will probably say Jannie Bornman – Showan Smith may find himself unlucky on this occasion.

Roth’s second try midway through came courtesy of their dominant pack as they secured their 8^th penalty try of the season. Is this some kind of record?

Newbury’s points all came from the boot of Tim Walsh, who knocked over some neat kicks. You may remember Walsh from his time at Worcester, I’m sure he remembers Mike Umaga!

Roth picked up the pace somewhat in the second half and secured the bonus point by the hour mark. First Errie Claassens – who had a fine game – crashed over in the right corner following a long missed pass from Steenson. Then Jamie Blackwood, making only his 4^th start of the campaign and a very solid one at that, touched down from the base of a five metre scrum.

Afterwards Jamie said, “It’s a win and we are delighted with the five points. But we know performance-wise, that was not up to our normal high standards that we’ve set ourselves.”

Jamie is his own harshest critic and went on to evaluate his own game, “I’ve also set very high standards for myself and personally I don’t think I was up to them today. But I will continue to work hard on the training pitch and keep fighting on – that’s all I can do.”

When asked about his try Jamie could not conceal his smile and said, “The pack did well with the scrum and I was lucky enough to be there at the very bottom just to touch it over the line. I’ve had harder tries in my time, but I’ll take that one.”

Six minutes from time Tim Walsh tagged his 5^th penalty of the afternoon to draw Newbury to within seven points and set the alarm bells ringing. It was incredible that for all of Roth’s dominance throughout, the game entered injury time with the possibility of a drawn game.

However on 84 minutes Gareth Steenson knocked over a long range penalty to settle matters and then in the 91^st minute Showan Smith showed excellent strength to touch down near the posts.

Final Score: Rotherham 32-15 Newbury

It was not Rotherham’s best performance of the season, but as Bester quite rightly said, all that matters from here on in is the result. So now Roth move on to Waterloo in the next chapter of this remarkable season. And you can be sure there’s plenty of twists left in those final eleven chapters.

Attendance: 1165

Other Weekend Results

Sat 6 January 07

Bedford 9-6 Doncaster
London Welsh 24-11 Otley
Moseley 12-20 Waterloo
Sedgley Park 8-22 Exeter
 

Sun 7 January 07

 
Cornish Pirates v Coventry
Leeds v Plymouth Albion
Nottingham v Pertemps Bees

National Division 1

Waterloo v Rotherham - 13 January at Blundellsands.

kick off 2.15pm