Rotherham Titans 21 Cornish Pirates 40: No shame for Titans as proud unbeaten home record is ended by ambushing Pirates

In a highly-competitive game that emphasised the size of the step up Harvey Biljon’s National One champions have taken into the Champ, Rotherham’s proud home record finally fell to seasoned second-tier campaigners.

Cornish are well backed, full-time and much fancied for a top-four finish this season. They had too much experience and applied too much pressure to a Titans team that never gave in and continued to try and find ways to cut the gap.

But ultimately, Rotherham came up short, beaten by six tries to three, and although 40-21 may look a little harsh on the scoreboard, plenty of lessons will have been learned.

Biljon said: “You saw the difference today between part-time and full-time with the pressure they could put on our line-out with some of the detail.

“I think that's probably an area where we need to make sure we can adapt and be better. I think that had an impact second half.

“You can see they're a powerful team. You can see they've got a process that they stick to, which is very good.

“But besides all of that, I'm immensely proud of the attitude, the energy, the enthusiasm our players showed today. Accuracy-wise, probably not as proud because there's a couple of moments where we shouldn't have got beaten.

“But sometimes you get days where things don't always just fall your way. I think we need to be able to learn to take those in our stride and just move on to the next moment in the game.”

It was a tight contest in the autumnal drizzle of the first half, Rotherham showing their ambition and confidence on home soil early on by kicking for touch instead of taking penalty points on offer.

Although they were initially held up, Titans eventually punched a hole through the rearguard on the left flank.

John Okafor won a line out and quickly offloaded to Callum Bustin to burrow over.

Titans had been in control for much of the first quarter when all of a sudden Arthur Relton burst out of midfield and scurried over unimpeded for the Cornish leveller.

A second Relton burst from far deeper alleviated pressure on the Pirates and then fly-half Arwel Robson crossed under the posts to give Cornish a lead they would not surrender.

The game’s decisive moment swung on defensive stands at both ends of the pitch.

Firstly Rotherham were denied despite a clever move down the blindside of a five-metre scrum. And then Pirates invaded up the other end and despite desperate Rotherham defending of their own line deep into stoppage time, Hugh Bokenham found a way through, Robson converting, to give Pirates a 21-7 lead at the break.

“Both ways were big moments,” observed Biljon. “We were held up over the try line and the other one was a challenge when you look back at those two or three phases from the line-out and the scrum through to the score before half-time. Those are big moments.

“Some of it was us not getting our detail right and then a good team putting us under pressure at the same time.”

Pirates threatened to run away with it when winger Henry Palmer scampered over to start the second half, but Rotherham came thundering back, full-back Isaac Shaw producing a bulldozing charge that was finally held up at the line, with prop Zac Nearchou following up to score.

Then when Morgan Nelson scored from a trademark Pirates catch and drive at a lineout, Titans fought back again, Ben Cambriani finishing a flowing move in the left corner for a try that had Biljon purring.

“How good were those tries?” he asked, rhetorically.

“We spoke as coaches and we said that with 18 minutes to go, there's still lots of rugby to play in this game. We'd taken those two tries and we just felt if we could get some field position, get some possession, we felt we were in with a chance. But that's where we talk about the detail. We just couldn't maintain possession.”

Replacement hooker Matt Pritchard was the beneficiary of a second catch and drive try for Cornish as time expired.

“It's one of those games where you're frustrated because you feel like you should have come away with something,” lamented Biljon. “That you should have come away with a little bit more. But in difficult conditions, it's greasy. Everyone can see that.”

Rotherham’s two-year unbeaten home record was always going to come to an end on their step up the divisions, but after prolonging it with wins over Coventry, Bedford and Caldy, there is no shame in being unable to repel the Pirates.