Rotherhan Titans

Ionians tame the Titans

On Sunday 20 January 2007 Hull Ionians under 15s v Rotherham Titans.

Ionians prepared for their Yorkshire Cup 3rd round clash with Barnsley, with a home game against Rotherham Titans. Having taken on Doncaster last week, they knew they were going into another tough match and as Rotherham took to the field, their size and strength became obvious. Ionians were also aware of a number of Rotherham players that had recently made the Yorkshire squad.
This years bigger and stronger Ionians Team stepped up to the mark from the start and the pack matched Rotherham man for man. Ionians soon started to provide good ball on a good platform for the slightly adapted backline who unusually started with a tactical kicking game due to the strong wind behind them. Rotherham to their credit ran it straight back at them and their full back made some excellent ground as a number of I’s players were guilty of ball watching.
About 10 minutes into the game, a quick penalty saw some slick handling put full back Sam Wilson into enough space for his pace to take him over the line for the first score. This was closely followed by a powerful forward drive during which Man of the match Josh Thundercliffe forced the ball over the line. Hammersley converted and I’s went 12-0 up.
Rotherham fought back and scored from a loose kick out of defence but I’s immediately struck back with a typical burst from 20 yards out by Danny Casson playing with his favoured No 7 on his back.
The half time whistle allowed a number of changes but Casson by now had been ‘sin binned’ for pushing the Offside line once too often and I’s started the 2nd half with 14 men. Rotherham took advantage and scored again but Ionians hit back with a superb back move finshed off by Ryan Rodgers which left the solid Rotherham defence wondering what they had to do.
Rotherham again struck back and started to pile on the pressure but the Ionians backs rewarded the huge effort by the forwards with superb trys from Henry Waine and Matt Butler, the latter following a superb break from Simon Hammersley who side stepped 4 tackles before throwing out a long pass to create the try.
The game finished 36 – 19 and was a another demonstration of open flowing rugby. Although Rotherham were disappointed, they are one of the few teams in recent seasons to have breached the Ionians defence on more than a few occasions.