By Roth Admin
April 4 2005

A spirited Rotherham performance ended in a 43-13 defeat against league leaders Bristol Shoguns at the Memorial Ground. Although Rotherham gave their all in this entertaining encounter it was the West Country side that came out on top to consolidate their position as league leaders. Post match Head Coach Andy Northey said, “Your game plan starts with first phase ball. We struggled with that – they’d obviously done a lot of video work on us. From that point on you are playing scrambling rugby. Our scrum was messy; in the line out we struggled with the gap narrowing and our lifters being taken away. But I really need to watch the video before making any further comment on that.

“For 20 minutes we were in the game, we kept the ball well. Then the turnovers started, we began giving ball away and conceding penalties and basically inviting pressure from Bristol. And they are too good a side to start doing that down here – or anywhere for that matter. They are a well balanced side and when you do that you’re going to leak points – and we did.

“Spirit wise and enthusiastic wise I thought we were fantastic! The sin-bins hurt us badly, again I need to see the video to see whether they were justified or not.”

Northey made special mention of Peter Jorgensen when saying, “To be honest I want to thank Jorgo! Jorgo should have been at home, with his wife making him hot cups of soup. He’s been up all night being sick and he’s been unwell on the bus coming down, constantly running to the toilet. And he’s stuck his hand up and said he’ll play. I went to the human resource department and the cupboard was bare and to be fair to Pete he did a sterling job, he marshalled the defence very well.

“In short we were beaten by a much better side that are rightly top of the table and are going up to the Premiership.”

To be fair to Roth they started much the brighter and could have been 13 points to the good after just 9 minutes. However Jon Benson came up short with two early penalty attempts into the strong wind and Jorgensen knocked on when the try line beckoned. It was ex Roth fly half Jason Strange who got the scoreboard moving first with a converted penalty in front of the posts on 12 minutes.

Just 3 minutes later and Benson made amends with a fine strike from 35 metres to draw Roth level after Bristol had infringed at the ruck. On 22 minutes Roth could have scored the 1st try of the game had Benson not knocked on when just 10 metres short of the Bristol line.

Roth started to come under pressure and on 32 minutes Lee Blackett was shown the yellow card for preventing Bristol quick ball from the ruck. While Roth were down to 14 men Bristol ran in 3 tries from Marsden, Pearce and Martin-Redman with Strange converting the latter two. In between Benson converted a penalty to take the teams in at the break with the hosts leading 22-6.

Just five minutes into the 2nd half and Roth suffered their 2nd yellow card of the afternoon – this time Tom Eaton was the culprit with an excessive use of the boot. And on this occasion Bristol scored two further tries through Nabaro and Strange, with Strange converting both.

Twelve minutes from time saw Roth score a consolation try. The ever willing Lee Blackett collected from 25 metres out and crashed through the Bristol defence to touch down under the posts for Benson to convert. It was no less than Blackett deserved – surely he must be the most improved player for Roth this season!

The last word however was with the champions elect when replacement Jason Hobson crashed over for Bristol’s 6th try. Replacement fly half Danny Gray converted to close out the match.


Final Score: Bristol Shoguns 43 Rotherham Titans 13


This display highlighted just how much work ahead Andre Bester has in rebuilding Rotherham if they are ever to have a realistic chance of challenging at the upper end of the division in the future. It also demonstrated that Bristol are the best team in the division and deserve their chance to sit at the top table with the big boys in the Premiership next season.


Roth Admin Man of the Match: Jannie Bornman – Roth will miss the big Springbok next season while he’s plying his trade in the Currie Cup.

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth

Attendance: 7,053

Scorers: Roth – Blackett (T), Benson (2P 1C).

Rotherham

15 Benson, 14 Strettle, 13 Jorgensen (Brear 73), 12 Blackett, 11 Wood, 10 Eaton, 9 Rauluni (Haami 60) 1 Golding (Rainima 77), 2 Emms (Briggs 40), 3 Latham (Boulton 82), 4 Pike, 5 Kenworthy, 6 Palepoi (Tuiavii 40), 7 Tamarua (Rice 40), 8 Bornman

Replacements

16 Briggs, 17 Rainima, 18 Tuiavii, 19 Boulton, 20 Rice, 21 Haami, 22 Brear


Bristol

15 Stortoni, 14 Marsden, 13 Cox, 12 Contepomi, 11 Nabaro, 10 Strange, 9 Martens, 1 Clarke, 2 Nelson, 3 Hilton, 4 Pearce, 5 Brownrigg, 6 Salter ©, 7 El Abd, 8 Martin-Redman

Replacements

16 Gray, 17 Nicholls, 18 Pritchard, 19 Hobson, 20 Clark, 21 Hodge, 22 Short