Leeds scenario stirs memories of the day Rotherham’s dream was left in pieces

The Headingley club’s current scenario will have them praying that history repeats itself when the Cornish Pirates travel to Worcester for their play-off final second leg on Wednesday.

Nine years ago it was Carnegie’s fellow Yorkshiremen, Rotherham Titans, whose luck ran out, keeping Leeds among the union elite.

The Rotherham side of 2001-2002 finished as runaway winners of the National League One, scoring 1,100 points in the process.

They lost only twice all season and amassed a remarkable 120 points but had promotion prised from their grasp by the Premiership’s controversial minimum entry criteria.

At the same time Leeds were buried at the foot of the Premiership. Already relegated, no air left in their lungs, with a bellowing voice calling them towards the light.

The Titans had spent three weeks celebrating their ascent to the Premiership when the club’s director of rugby at the time, Jim Kilfoyle, received a telephone call.

“I got a phone call around half seven in the morning while I was driving in to work to tell me our promotion had been rejected,” remembers Kilfoyle, whose side had also won the Powergen Cup that season, beating Exeter in the final.

“I couldn’t believe it.

“At quarter past eight it started to hit. The phone was going non-stop, everyone was running around and all the TV and radio stations were there.

“All the lads were away around the world. I remember Mike Smith, my captain, had flown back to Canada.

“We’d already celebrated the promotion.

“That day was 12 hours of hell. It was one of the worst days of my life.”

The RFU had previously told Rotherham they were ineligible for promotion because their ground at Clifton Lane did not have fixed seating.

But they were certain they had solved the problem by agreeing a ground-share deal with Rotherham United FC at Millmoor.

“They wanted any sides coming into the league to be the principal tenants,” continues Kilfoyle.

“We would need to have priority over Rotherham United to play on a Saturday.

“It did seem very anti-Rotherham at the time.

“These minimum requirements seem to be raised all the time and the voices seem to come from the big clubs that are already in the Premiership.

“The rules didn’t apply to teams already in the Premier Division – Bath had temporary seating.

“We did appeal but there was no sense of appeal.

“It was down in black and white and of course you have to abide by the rules.

“It seems like something that is designed to drive people away from their traditional homes and that moves away from what rugby’s all about. People like their own ground.

“They need to allow teams a few years once they go up to get everything sorted out. You don’t know if you might go up, and then you can’t do it all in two months.”

The RFU could not keep the Titans down the following season.

The club smashed several records and tallied a remarkable 38 straight victories to earn top spot for the second year in a row.

“In 2002 we won all of our games.

“That’s an unbeaten record that not many people talk about because we didn’t get the first promotion.

“That 2002-2003 season the side that won the league didn’t automatically go up. They had to have a play-off with the side that finished bottom of the Premiership (Bedford). That’s something that never happened again.

“All the good will in the world seemed to be with us in that play-off.

“It was a massive relief that day when we finally got promotion.”

After losing their play-off final first leg, Cornish Pirates are less likely to save Leeds from the perils of relegation this year.

While Pirates have known that they will not achieve promotion since before the game with Worcester, Kilfoyle says it will have been detrimental to their hopes of winning that tie.

“I feel sorry for them. I think psychologically it takes away the edge. In our play-off game against Bedford we played with 14 men against a slope with water running down it.

“But all the players performed beyond what they were capable of.

“That edge comes from the nature of the contest.

“Being able to really achieve something, and being able to fight for your prize

“There’s always got to be promotion and relegation, that’s where so much of the emotion and the competitiveness comes from. Once you end promotion it becomes like American football. It’s what really gets the blood pumping.”