Sheffield Tigers v Rotherham Titans was a historic game for rugby as the two teams played for the first time at Dore Moor to a crowd of around 400.
The Tigers kicked off against extreme wind and enforced pressure on Rotherham’s scrum, earning a penalty. Townsend looped around and drove over the line to score after four minutes.
Rotherham’s response was strong, their winger Connor Field just failed to touch down in the right corner. The Titans stole a Tigers line-out and James Cooke ran ahead before feeding inside for scrum half Sam Boxhall. After 10 minutes there was an equaliser at 5-5.
The Tigers earned break-down penalties in Rotherham’s half but failed to place a kick.
Instead the Tigers opted for territory and possession and were rewarded for effective scrum and line out play when Townsend crossed the line again in the right corner in the 19th minute.
Tigers took advantage from an attacking scrum with Ryan Holmes exchanging passes with his back row before offloading to Broadley. Tom Parkin converted to give Tigers a 17-5 lead after 23 minutes.
Titans’ Boxhall took it short and quick and passed to the supporting Kieran Curran to go over. Joe Carlisle hit the post with the conversion, but the visitors fought back.
Just before the turnaround Sam Wager was pinged in a ruck on halfway and this led to Curran driving home again from short range to reduce Tiger’s lead to 17-15 at the interval.
Despite playing against the conditions in the second half, it was Rotherham who produced a period of strong rugby to secure the five points, taking them into the lead. Within two minutes of the restart they had earned a penalty and territory
From the restart Carlisle gathered and moved it left for Cooke to advance. The ball was quickly recycled and Richard Hayes found space to run in. Hayes converted both tries to open up a 29-17 lead for the Titans.
The Tigers came back and had a period of return pressure but were thwarted when they were penalised at an unsettled scrum.
Home side had to score next to have a chance of winning but with Tigers attacking again, Rotherham effected an interception which led to number Zak Poole running through and when caught, offloading to Field to sprint home unchallenged.
Five minutes later, with Broadley having seen yellow, Harry Dunne broke through and fed to sub George Tucker who crossed to make it 41-17 to the Titans.
The Tigers scored the last try of the game, taking their final score up to 22.
Tigers almost scored again near the end when Broadley made good ground on the right and passed inside to Keetley but the left winger was tackled by Curran.
Rotherham remain joint second in the table with Sedgley Park, meaning they hold the chance to return to the Championship. And the Tigers slip a place to eleventh.
