National Division 1

Saturday 12th November

Sharmans Cross Road

12:30pm Kick off

Bees 26

Titans 27

v

Earth Titans: 15 Carter, 14 ND Monye (Brear 57), 13 Mitchell, 12, Blackett (Capt.), 11 Claasens, 10 WP Strauss (Whitehead 69), 9 Bedford, 1 Golding (Carey 59), 2 Conroy (Hanna 68), 3 Rawson (Pienaar 68), 4 Bornman, 5 McComb, 6 Fourie , 7 Cochrane, 8 Donald.

Replacements: 16 Kirkwood, 17 Whitehead, 18 Brear, 19 Hanna, 20 Carey, 21 Pienaar 22 McGowan

Pertemps Bees: 15. D. Knight 14. Takarangi 13. Billig 12. Martin 11. Baxter 10. Walsh 9. Harvey1. Le Chevalier 2. Miles 3. Olver 4. Davidson 5. Orgee (Capt.) 6. White 7. Trayhern 8. Jenner

Replacements: 16 Wordly, 17 Leilau, 18 Hughes, 19 Tamarua, 20 P. Knight, 21 Matthews, 22 Lamb

 

MATCH REVIEW

Nevertheless, it is a good side that doesn’t play well and still comes away with a victory. This win was very important, as defeat would have set confidence tumbling ahead of the South Yorkshire derby next week against Doncaster.

Pertemps started the better and raced into a 3-0 lead on four minutes with a Ben Harvey penalty. But Rotherham bounced back within two minutes when Scott Donald charged down a clearing kick and Neil Cochrane picked up and raced over for his first try for the club. WP Strauss converted.

Almost immediately Harvey reduced the arrears with another well taken penalty, this time from the right touch line. On 13 minutes it was WP Strauss who showed he too could kick with his own penalty from around 45 metres.

Rotherham’s second try was a cracker, Bees lost the ball inside Roth’s 22 and skipper Lee Blackett collected well and then raced 80 metres to score under the posts for Strauss to convert.

Midway through and Harvey and Strauss traded penalties with the fussy referee making it difficult for the game to flow. As the half neared its conclusion and with Roth well on top, referee Hayes sin-binned Bees skipper Ed Orgee for persistently killing the ball.

Deep into injury time and with Roth camped on the Bees line; the visitors scored their 3^rd try of the game. Amazingly in a forwards dominated move it was wing ND Monye who was driven over for his first try for the club on his first full start. Strauss converted to end the half with Roth well on top and a bonus point within touching distance.

Half Time: Bees 12-27 Titans

In a scrappy opening to the second half neither side threatened seriously and referee Hayes continued to disrupt matters whenever he could. On 54 minutes and possibly a turning point of the game, Jon Golding was sent to the bin after an off the ball incident.

This seemed to inspire the hosts and just two minutes later, a kick through by Tim Walsh sent speedy wing Nick Baxter in for Bees first try of the game. Walsh taking over kicking duty converted nicely to reduce the arrears to 8 points.

As the half meandered on, Roth had opportunities to kick for points but rightly opted to go in search of the bonus point. Near the end, one Titan attack looked very promising but just 10 metres shy of the Bees line, the ball was kicked away and possession lost.

With the very last play of the match and with Roth pressing for the bonus point, Bees mounted a counter attack. The ball was spread to the left wing where Nick Baxter made good ground before finding replacement Ryan Lamb who went over for Bees second try of the afternoon. Walsh converted to bring the match to its conclusion.

 Final Score: Bees 26-27 Titans

The final score flatters Bees slightly, as to be fair they never looked like winning the contest. Rotherham will be disappointed at not only missing out on the bonus point, but with their performance, the second half in particular.

The early start no doubt disrupted their preparation but taskmaster Andre Bester will not use that as an excuse. The team themselves have set a standard this season and freely admitted afterwards, they had slipped from where they want to be.

Bester spoke afterwards about the frustration he is feeling towards the referees. Bester bemoaned how he sends his team out to try and not concede penalties and to go into the contact situation from behind the last man. He says other teams are breaking the law and are regularly getting away with it because of inadequate refereeing.

On to the big derby match against Doncaster next week and the thought within the Rotherham camp is, if they can get back to playing how they have been, then they are quietly confident they can notch up another victory.

Full post match comments from Bester, Blackett and Cochrane to follow.

Cornish Pirates 39 – 22 Otley

Doncaster 26 – 16 Newbury

London Welsh 18 – 29 Plymouth Albion

Nottingham 26 – 27 Coventry

Sedgley Park 22 – 29 Harlequins

National Division 1

Roth v Doncaster 19 November at the Earth Arena.

kick off 2.0pm