Optimistic Andy Key admits Rotherham Titans need to find winning formula quickly

Rotherham player Jake Henry, who was praised by Andy Key, tries to break through the Doncaster ranks. (Picture: Chris Etchells)

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Rotherham suffered a second successive defeat when they were crushed 44-0 away to Doncaster Knights, but Key insisted there is an optimistic mood in the camp.

“I think the whole club are enjoying what we are doing,” said the former Yorkshire Carnegie director of rugby. “But by the same token it is about success, it is about winning.

“At the moment we haven’t done that and we have to look at ourselves and start to understand what it is that’s going wrong, but I don’t think we are a million miles away.”

Key admitted Rotherham have to be much better than they were at Castle Park. He added: “It was disappointing, we know we can’t continue like this. It is two weeks on the trot we haven’t given a fair account of ourselves.

“We are training really well, we are doing the right things – we are critical when we need to be and we praise each other when it’s right, but at the moment, from a game point of view, we are not where we need to be; we are not at the races.

“We need to find out pretty quickly why that is. We have a fair idea and the players nailed it in the huddle at the end of the game.

“It is about us now making sure we bring the right sort of framework for training this week so we can meet Hartpury head on.”

Key said wing Jake Henry provided an example of what he is looking for from his team.

“I thought Jake Henry was pretty outstanding,” he offered. “Some of the things he did were brilliant, he did everything we are asking of the guys.

“I don’t think there was much in the game he did wrong, he got us on the front foot virtually every time he got the ball and he made his tackles when he needed to. If we could have had similar endevour from the other 14 I think we would have been on the front foot a lot more and gone through phases.

“I think you could count on one hand the number of times we got past four or five phases and that’s not our game. Our game is to do that and to put sides under pressure, but we have got to understand and learn how to do that. Everybody is putting in the effort, but it has got to be better directed.”