Rotherham Titans v Bedford: Titans seek response to their derby collapse at Headingley

The South Yorkshire side were utterly embarrassed when 
falling behind 42-7 in the first half of their last outing at Headingley.

Granted, they recovered enough to post some sort of reply, eventually losing 53-26, but head coach Burnell knows they must respond in this afternoon’s Championship contest with Bedford.

“There was a lot of disappointment around the place following the Carnegie defeat and rightly so,” he said.

“But lessons have been learned; we’ve drawn a line under that now and we’re looking forward to the challenge that Bedford will bring.

“I know (head coach) Mike Rayer really well; he’s done an amazing job at Bedford as he’s guided them into numerous play-offs in the division.

“They’ve not had the best of luck recently and we know their position in the table is a false one and we won’t be taken in by any of that because I know what a good coach Mike is and how hard he works.”

Bedford are ninth, just one point and one place above Rotherham who are seeking to finish their faltering season with some sort of flourish.

Burnell added: “We are not looking over our shoulders; 
our aim is to finish the season as strong as we can and to climb 
as high up the table as is 
possible.

“The Bedford game offers us an opportunity to achieve our aims and although we know Bedford will make it difficult, we know if we put in a performance we can get the result we want.”

Rotherham lost 17-16 at Bedford in October and make a number of changes as they look to correct that.

Ben Foley comes in for Callum Wilson on the right wing and Jake Henry returns for the dual-registered Tom Collins on the left while, up front, Toby Williams is giving the nod over namesake Tom at loosehead and Joe Graham comes in at hooker as Charlie Maddison is moved into the back row for Buster Lawrence.