Rotherham Titans move on from Leeds Tykes defeat to refocus on present and National One promotion bid
LEEDS TYKES may have claimed the bragging rights with their pre-Christmas victory over Rotherham Titans at Headingley, but it is the South Yorkshiremen who remain better placed on the resumption of National One hostilities this weekend.
And Titans director of rugby Harvey Biljon is urging Rotherham supporters not to forget that.
Losing by a point at your long-time rivals, particularly on their big day out at Headingley which coincided with the former Premiership club revealing their ambitions to get back to the second tier, may smart a little, but the bigger picture should bring some solace.
For even though Rotherham lost the December 20 appointment 19-18, they still picked up a losing bonus point, one which kept them top of the division.
Leeds, by contrast, for all their uptick in form from October following their promotion from National Two North, remain second bottom.
“Looking at the table is fool’s gold because you’ll get caught out,” said Biljon, whose team return to home soil on Saturday to host 11th-placed Clifton.
“What’s important is that when you go to away games you’ve got to make sure you come away with something and we came away with a point, and could have had more.
“So in the bigger scheme of things, I still think we’re okay.
“You’ve got to put the defeats into context (Titans lost two of their last four in the run-up to the three-week festive break). We came up against a strong Plymouth team and lost by a point and then up against an emotionally-charged Leeds team and lost by a point.
“The additions they have brought in with the five loan players made a marked difference to the Leeds team, but take nothing away from their performance.
“From our perspective, you need a bit of luck, a bounce of the ball, a referee’s decision, and we didn’t get any of those on the day. And then contributed with our own errors.”
Having made hay while the sun shone in the late summer and autumn, scoring 40-plus points in each of their opening five victories, Rotherham are now having to adapt to the wintery conditions to maintain their push for promotion to Champ Rugby.
Injuries - like all teams suffer - have meant a frequent reshuffling of the pack, but Biljon welcomed his team back to a first training session of the year on Monday night sensing batteries had been recharged and that his players were not carrying the scars of recent near-misses.
“I have no concerns at all,” he said. “Yes, the break came at the right time because we were running on fumes. Three of our second-rows were out injured and we had a few cracks with personnel changes, moving things around.
“This is a tough, attritional league. Naturally our supporters will be frustrated we lost a derby game so it’s going to sting a bit more.
“But the challenge for us is to remain in the here and now and what I’m encouraged by so far is our players want to be here looking ahead to playing Clifton this weekend. That’s what you’ve got to concern yourself with, not the end outcome.”