Hooking crisis eased for Titans thanks to rival coach Griffiths

The club has postponed today’s Championship home match with Cornish Pirates due to heavy snow, but it has been rescheduled for tomorrow at 2pm.

There will be a Clifton Lane pitch inspection at 9am this morning and, if the game gets the go-ahead at the second attempt, Thomson will make his debut.

His arrival is welcome relief for head coach Alex Codling, who had been struggling with his front-row options.

“I’d like to thank Clive Griffiths over at Doncaster for helping us out with Alistair,” he said.

“Clive’s been fantastic and incredibly co-operative; he has let us have Alistair on loan and we are very grateful to him for that.”

With regards the game itself, Rotherham are wary of the damage tomorrow’s visitors can do having lost down in the south-west 53-21 back in November.

Indeed, they have not managed to defeat the sixth-placed Pirates – who are still harbouring hopes of a play-off place – in their last seven meetings.

“They gave us a bit of a beating last time and we know we’re going to have to be on the money if we are going to get a result here,” added Codling.

“However, we’ve started to play some open, attractive rugby in the last few weeks.

“If the weather’s not ideal then we will need to ensure that we don’t do anything silly in our own half.

“In tough conditions it’s about field position; you can still play the type of rugby you want to, you just need to make sure it’s in the right areas of the field and I believe if we get that right we have a great opportunity to turn the Pirates over.”

Lee Blackett and Joel Gill form a new centre partnership, meaning Pale Nonu and Eamonn Sheridan are on the bench.

Joe Ellyatt and Toby Freeman return to in the back-row as Latu Makaafi and Carl Kirwan are out with minor injuries.