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#Post#: 12559--------------------------------------------------
Bishop Stortford game
DIR By: Steve Bott
Date: September 26, 2025, 7:25 am
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Round 4 of National 1 this weekend sees an in-form Rotherham
Titans host Bishop’s Stortford at Clifton Lane; kick-off on
Saturday is 2pm.
Titans have made an impressive start to their campaign and go
into the game on the back of three bonus-points wins.
Victories on the road over Sale FC and Clifton sandwiched a big
derby win over Yorkshire rivals Leeds Tykes at Clifton Lane.
The tries have flowed also for the South Yorkshire side with 20
already totalled across the 3 games and this has helped them to
go second in the table behind Plymouth Albion on points
difference.
Titans’ opponents Bishop’s Stortford have also had a decent
start to the season.
An opening day 26-12 bonus point win over Birmingham Moseley was
followed up with a narrow 33-31 bonus-point loss at unbeaten
Blackheath, whilst last time out they weren’t disgraced in
losing 31-15 to league leaders Plymouth Albion.
Bishop’s will certainly hold no fears in playing at Clifton Lane
as their two previous visits have seen them win both games.
Indeed, they are the only team to beat Rotherham at Clifton Lane
in over 2 and a half years. Titans last home defeat came against
Sedgley Park in Park’s Nat 2 North Championship winning season
of 2022/23.
In the overall head-to-head meetings honours are even as each
team has won three games, the last of which being a Rotherham
17-11 win at Silver Leys in February last season.
Going into the game Rotherham have made 3 changes to their
starting XV, all of which come in the forwards.
In the front row hooker Morgan Veness will be flanked by
Alastair Donkor at loosehead prop and Andrew Foster at tighthead
prop as he comes in for Xavier Valentine.
The second row sees Frankie Gascoigne link-up with Harry
Gilson-Fox who replaces Fraser Hastie, whilst in the back row
alongside John Okafor at blindside and Harry Newborn at
openside, Callum Bustin comes in at number 8 for Ellis Thomas
Along the backline, JB Bruzulier and Rob Povey continue their
pairing at half back, whilst in midfield Lloyd Hayes is
partnered by Travis Gordon.
The back three sees Mitchell Lacey-Babalola and Jackson Barling
on the wings, with Isaac Shaw at full back.
Looking ahead to the match Titans Harvey Biljon said:
We were pleased to come away from Clifton with a bonus point
win. You have to give them credit; they were emotionally charged
for the fixture; it was an important one for them at home after
their previous two results and they definitely came with an
attitude to take something from the game.
It’s difficult to sometimes to appreciate the conditions, I know
the game was streamed but it’s hard to tell on the screen what
it’s really like and in that first half in particular, with the
rain that came down in the warm-up and a little bit during the
game, it was very greasy and we were playing into a pretty tough
wind.
The way we controlled the first 15 minutes was very good and I
was probably a little bit frustrated not to come away with
another score, but that was testament to how hard Clifton were
working.
We absorbed a fair bit of pressure in that first half, and
crucially for us, the team has stepped-up and learnt that the
period either side of half time is vital. To come away with
scores either side of half time was important and then we were
able to capitalise from a territorial point of view, and we
finally came away with a well-deserved 5-point victory after a
long-travel on a day of tough conditions.
We know in this division every week the opposition is going to
make life difficult for you, that’s the nature of the beast, and
I’ve said it before, rugby is an honest game and if you’re not
prepared, you’re going to get found out.
It will be no different against Bishop’s Stortford and this week
we’ve just focused on our own training and on what we need to
bring to the game. Against them last season each team won a
game, but this is a new season, this is a new team, we’ve
prepared differently, and so last season’s results really don’t
come into it.
We know they’re going to be very tough opposition, we’ve seen
that from their results so far and we know we need to be
prepared and on point.
Our preparation from last week primes us for this game; I think
what people don’t realise is the resilience behind the scenes.
Last week we lost players leading into the game, right up until
Thursday night training we lost players.
However, it was impressive the way players were able to step-in
and still contribute to a performance and that’s great to be
able to fall back on that resilience from the squad’s
perspective.
Titans: 15 Isaac Shaw, 14 Jackson Barling, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12
Travis Gordon, 11 Mitchell Lacey-Babalola, 10 Rob Povey, 9 JB
Bruzulier, 1 Alastair Donkor, 2 Morgan Veness, 3 Andrew Foster,
4 Frankie Gascoigne, 5 Harry Gilson-Fox, 6 John Okafor, 7 Harry
Newborn (Capt.), 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cole, 17 Calvin Mitchell, 18 Xavier
Valentine, 19 Ellis Thomas, 20 Sinjin Broad.
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