London Welsh 12 Rotherham 29
Tim speaks to Press
By Roth Admin
September 26 2004
Rotherham maintained their perfect start with a 29-12 victory over London Welsh at Old Deer Park. Rotherham’s 4th try which earned them a bonus point came in the 9th minute of injury time. Anthony Elliott intercepted and ran 60 metres to score and send the small army of travelling fans into ecstasy.
Rotherham looked out of sorts initially after suffering some traffic problems on the way to the game which ensured their pre-game preparation was rushed. As a result the team were not as settled as they’d like.
It was Welsh that got the scoreboard ticking first after just two minutes when Rotherham infringed at a maul. Up stepped fly half Mike Whitehead and from 35 metres he converted to give Exiles the early advantage.
On 18 minutes Rotherham’s tight head prop John Rawson received a 10 minute rest in the bin after preventing a quick tap-penalty. From the resulting penalty Whitehead increased the hosts lead to 6 points – A fair reflection of their advantage.
On 26 minutes a scrum 20 metres away from the Welsh line saw Rotherham make their mark. Debutant at scrum half Mark Sweeney found Pez who fed the onrushing Jorgensen who picked a nice line and showed good pace and strength to power over for the first try of the game. Pez converted to give the visitors a 7-6 lead which they held up to the break.
51 minutes into the game and Welsh regained the lead when Whitehead converted his 3rd penalty of the game. On the hour mark Rotherham’s faithful band of supporters were beginning to get edgy after another successful penalty from Whitehead put the home side 12-7 ahead.
Just two minutes later and normal service was resumed. After some good work from Rotherham’s pack of forwards, the ball was spun out to the left wing where young Strettle collected and his burning pace allowed him to gallop 40 metres to score in the corner. Pez converted brilliantly to give the Laners a 14-12 advantage.
That was followed by a cheeky 35m drop goal from Jason Keyter, his 4th for Rotherham in the league. One minutes from time and replacement Tom Eaton sealed the victory. Eaton chased his own grubber kick and got the luck of the bounce to score Rotherham’s 3rd try of the afternoon. Pez missed the conversion.
Rotherham would have been happy with the 3 try victory but there was further drama to come. Nine minutes of injury time had passed when Rotherham’s right wing Anthony Elliott anticipated a Welsh pass and intercepted. Off he raced – no Welsh full back meant he could enjoy his moment. Pez converted to make the final score, London Welsh 12: Rotherham 29.
Afterwards Rotherham’s Head Coach Mike Schmid commented, “It was tough; it’s a tough place to come to. We came down this morning, there was a lot of traffic and we were a bit rushed in our pre-game prep and we weren’t quite settled going into the game.
When we settled we were very good. We were still a bit undisciplined at times, we keep saying to the boys that we can’t give away free points, but we’re still doing that a bit more than I would like and the good teams will punish you.
Thankfully I thought our defence was pretty good again and we’re really making teams earn stuff and we didn’t give any tries away today and that’s a massive positive for us
London Welsh are getting better; they’ve had some tough games. They’ve been away at Exeter and Bristol and at home to Birmingham. So they’ve not had an easy start and I expect them to start and climb the table now.
We have Plymouth at home next week and that will tell us where we are. We’re hoping for four wins from four and then we can send a message to all the other teams, that we are back and that we’re going to be a hard team to play.”
After a shaky opening 25 minutes Rotherham started to take control. The set scrum was magnificent, line outs are improving and the backs are running some intelligent lines. Add to that the impressive way the youngsters have adapted and Rotherham’s hierarchy must be pleased. The score slightly flattered Rotherham but that’s the nature of the game. How many games last season did they loose when the score flattered the opposition?
The benchmark will come next week with the arrival of Plymouth. Plymouth are among the favourites to win the division and as such will test Rotherham to the full.
Rotherham:
15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Anthony Elliott, 13 Peter Jorgensen, 12 Lee Blackett (Jason Keyter 53), 11 David Strettle, 10 Ramiro Pez, 9 Mark Sweeney (Tom Eaton 68), 1 Jonathan Golding, 2 Neil Briggs, 3 John Rawson (Rod Latham 80), 4 Tim Maslanyk (Mike Schmid 53), 5 Glen Kenworthy, 6 Des Tuiavii (Adam Harrington 76), 7 Craig Short ©, 8 Geraint Lewis.
Replacements
16 Craig West, 17 Rod Latham, 18 Adam Harrington, 19 Mike Schmid, 20 Tom Rice, 21 Tom Eaton, 22 Jason Keyter.
London Welsh:
15 Matt Vines, 14 James Baker, 13 Adam Bidwell, 12 Matt Cannon ©, 11 Geraint John, 10 Mike Whitehead, 9 Allen Chilten, 1 Steve Millard, 2 James Greenwood, 3 Colm Hannon, 4 Kevin Burke, 5 Dave Ramsey, 6 Lee Starling, 7 Martin Anayi, 8 Florent Rossigneux.
Replacements
16 Andy Fahey, 17 Matt Baker, 18 Adam Slade, 19 Dan Beard, 20 Owain Walbyoff, 21 Dylan Pugh 22 John Swords.
Roth Admin Man of the Match: David Strettle. A star is on the rise.
Ref: Geraint Ashton Jones.