ADAM HOPCROFT

We found Adam sat alone; reflecting on what had been a terrific, but bruising encounter against one of the hardest hitting teams in the division. The approachable tight head was only too pleased to have a chat.

OK then Adam, what was it like out there today? “It was a tough old game, in fact it’s been a tough old week, and we’ve been training very hard. It’s down to Andre and the team he’s put together and the characters he’s put together.

“We may not be the best players but we’ve got the best team spirit and the best attitude and the guys put it in week in and week out. You just have to look at Hendre Fourie’s face, any other player would have gone off, but he just carries on and carries on. It’s the same with everybody, all week people have had niggles but they turn up, they turn up for each other and for the club and for the supporters.”

Adam continued and went on to explain Roth’s plan for beating Albion, “Plymouth were very tough and we expected that, they have the best defensive record in the league. We had to take them through the middle and that’s where we felt there would be space and where we felt we could make yardage. We knew if we flung it wide from touchline to touchline like we did when we went down there, we’d lose yardage. So we had to try and suck in those defenders and it paid dividends today.”

Hopcroft’s try was his first of the season, how did it feel, “Bloody marvelous! There’s normally about seven blokes behind me, we’ve had a few of them this season and a few penalty tries as well. I’ve been on top of Shrek a few times and it was nice not to have someone pull the ball off me for a change because that’s normally what happens.”

Hopcroft went on to explain one of the keys to Rotherham’s success this season and looked forward to next weeks game against the Pirates, “To be honest it’s a special thing with this team and it reminds me of being back at school and being with people for years and years and you’ve grown up with them together. We all get on and if you’re going out you just want to ring everyone and say, “Let’s go.” Little things like that shows how close we are as a group and I think that comes through on the pitch as well. I was really proud of the guys today.

“I know it’s a cliché but we do need to take each week as it comes. We know it’s going to be another really tough game at Pirates. We’ll go down there with confidence and do the same things that we do week in and week out. Nothing different, it’s just another rugby pitch and another set of rugby guys we’ve got to play against. We’ll do our homework this week and we’ll know how we want to play and away we go.”

With that the weary prop left for a shower and a cold drink.