Roth march into 1/4 finals

Powergen National Trophy

Round 6

Friday 25th November

Billesley Common 7.30 Kick off

Moseley 13

Titans    29

v

TEAM LINE-UP'S

Earth Titans: 15 Whitehead, 14 Holtby, 13 Carter, 12, Blackett (Capt), 11 Claassens (Outram 77), 10 L Strauss, 9 Kirkwood (Bedford 47), 1 Carey, (Kilbane 77), 2 Conroy (Walsh 77), 3 Pienaar (Hopcroft 54), 4 McGowan, 5 McComb (Cochrane 54), 6 Donald, 7 Fourie, 8 Bornman.

Replacements: 16 Bedford, 17 WP Strauss, 18 Outram, 19 Cochrane, 20 Hopcroft, 21 Walsh, 22 Kilbane

Moseley: 15. A Bressington 14. N Bressington 13. O'Leary 12. Cox 11. Colvin 10. Thomas 9. Taylor 1. Buxton 2. Bick 3. Fallon 4. Hallmen 5. Stott 6. Evans 7. Warren 8. Rodwell

Replacements: 16 Coles, 17 Caves, 18 Macdonald, 19 Skelding, 20 Blackwall, 21 Hunter, 22 Gray

 

MATCH REVIEW

On a bitterly cold evening Rotherham raced into an early lead, scoring two unconverted tries in the first ten minutes. Hendre Fourie touched down first after good work from Blackett initially and then Holtby. Scott Donald powered over for the second, making a break from the base of a Roth five metre scrum.

At this point it looked ominous for the second division club as the visitor’s dominance up front was apparent. But credit to the Midlander’s, they bounced back with some good rugby of their own.

On 19 minutes instead of kicking an easy penalty, they went for touch and a 5 metre line out. From the resulting pressure Moseley’s inside centre Paul Cox crashed over for an unconverted try.

Ten minutes later Moseley lock Dai Hallmen was yellow carded for killing Roth quick ball. However it was the home side that scored next. This time under pressure it was Roth who were penalised at a maul and fly half Olly Thomas punished them with a well taken penalty to reduce the arrears to just two points.

Rotherham’s pack of forwards continued to dominate proceedings and the visitors should have registered more points as a result. Credit has to go to Moseley however for their resolute defending.

However on the stroke of half time after more aggressive work from the pack, the ball was spread wide left for number 8 Jannie Bornman to power over in the corner. Mike Whitehead missed the difficult conversion.

Halt Time: Moseley 8-15 Rotherham

Moseley came out all fired up for the second half, with perhaps the scent of an upset in their nostrils. This was enhanced on 51 minutes when Joe Bedford – who’d only been on for 4 minutes – received a yellow card for not rolling away in the tackle.

Sustained Moseley pressure ensued but Rotherham’s resilient defence held firm. Instead, on the hour mark it was Roth who scored their fourth try. A brilliant break by Lodewyk Strauss (who was having an excellent game) found the onrushing Nigel Conroy who ran unopposed under the sticks. Whitehead converted.

The gutsy second division outfit bounced straight back though and their back line was looking threatening with pace and good running lines. With 15 minutes to go Moseley won a line out ten metres from the Roth line.

Moseley’s forwards moved the ball well to allow replacement hooker Adam Caves to go over near the corner. Fly half Olly Thomas missed the difficult conversion that would have narrowed the gap to just 7 points!

The tie was finally settled four minutes from time. A Rotherham line out ten metres from goal was expertly driven forward by the dominant pack and Louis McGowan popped up to score his first try for the club. Mike Whitehead tagged on the extras to put Rotherham into the ¼ finals.

Final Score: Moseley 13-29 Rotherham

Although Rotherham have played better this season, Cup rugby it’s about getting the job done and that’s exactly what they did. Taking nothing away from Moseley, but you got the impression Rotherham had other gears to move into if the situation required it.

Moseley will also be pleased with their cold nights work. They never stopped working and can take a lot of credit for playing some good rugby in the back line. But as the old cliché says, they are now able to, ‘concentrate on the league.’ And if they continue to perform as they did against Rotherham, then next season they are likely to meet up again, but this time in National League 1.

A special mention for Lodewyk Strauss must be made; he had his best game yet in a Rotherham shirt. He looks far more comfortable at fly half than out in the centres. He’s probably given Andre Bester another option at number ten.

But again it was the Rotherham pack that impressed most and the longer they all play together, the better they’ll be as a unit. One again Hendre Fourie was outstanding, his tackling and scavenging work was excellent and the hard yards made were exceptional.

Post match re-action to follow.

National Division One

London Welsh v Roth

3 December at Old Deer Park

kick off 2.00pm!