Rotherham Titans must rectify errors - and quickly

Rotherham Titans are acutely aware of the size of the task they face on Sunday as they travel to take on Munster A in the British & Irish Cup; the round 4 fixture kicks-off at 2pm.
Rotherham TitansRotherham Titans
Rotherham Titans

Having been beaten by the crack Irish side 35-24 at Clifton Lane last week, Rotherham face a massive challenge.

Titans have made 10 changes to their side, four of which are enforced by the parent club recalling their players and injuries to Will Goodwin (ankle) and Dan Grange (back) mean the pair will not make the trip across the Irish Sea.

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Along the backline Titans have a new half back pairing of George Tresidder and Will Robinson as they replace Matt Dudman and Caolan Ryan, with the latter moving to full back for the injured Will Goodwin. A new centre combination will be tried for the first time as a youthful-looking pairing of Dan Kelly and Jonny Sykes replace the recalled pair of Oli Bryant and Juan Pablo Estelles. On the wing with Ben Foley comes in for the recalled Tom Collins.

In the pack Santi Socino comes in at hooker for Joe Graham, in the second row Miles Normandale and Oli Curry come in for Toby Salmon and Tom Hicks and in the back row Tom Calladine and Buster Lawrence round off the changes as they replace Lewis Ludlam and Dan Grange.

Justin Burnell said: “We did have some positives that we can draw on from our game a last week. The big thing for me was our scrum; it is constantly improving and that’s a massive plus point for us.

“We have to admit though, they sent over a very good team as we knew they would; they were very physical at the breakdown and they played very close to the wire. They played like the great Munster teams of old and in all fairness to the young referee he had a difficult game; there are no negatives in that, it’s just a fact they beat us with their physicality and experience. This weekend it’s about going there with one eye on Doncaster; that’s a huge game for us on Boxing Day, but also we would like to rectify some of our mistakes from last week.”

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Titans: 15 Caolan Ryan, 14 Dan Tai, 13 Jonny Sykes, 12 Dan Kelly, 11 Ben Foley, 10 Will Robinson, 9 George Tresidder, 1 Joe Hutchinson, 2 Santi Socino, 3 Danny Herriott, 4 Miles Normandale, 5 Oli Curry, 6 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 7 Tom Calladine, 8 Buster Lawrence.

Replacements: 16 Joe Graham, 17 Tom Williams, 18 Ian Williams, 19 Toby Salmon, 20 Tom MacDonald, 21 Matt Walsh, 22 Tahir El Mahdi.