Rotherham’s revival begins as inept Leeds are brushed aside

By sharp contrast, Rotherham recovered strongly from their defeat by Bedford and revived their chances of reaching the semi-finals from Pool B.

Their win was spoiled by a serious arm injury to captain and lock Sam Dickinson who may well have broken an arm and will miss the rest of the promotion campaign.

Leeds’s supporters and coaching staff must be wondering why the team played so ineptly only a week after such a commendable result at Cornish Pirates.

Needless to say, a monumental improvement must be put together at Headingley Carnegie on Sunday against Bedford Blues if Leeds are to make any progress in the play-offs.

Rotherham, whose tackling and ferocious defence were largely responsible for this morale-boostiing result, now prepare for the toughest of challenges at Cornish Pirates on Sunday.

Now back in business, Rotherham outplayed and outfought Leeds who, apart from countless errors, were prevented from launching penetrating attacks.

As soon as a Leeds player grabbed the ball, he was dumped by Rotherham’s defenders, working overtime in their 22 and the opposition’s.

Leeds may regard themselves as unlucky in the fourth Yorkshire derby between the clubs this season not to have been awarded a try on 73 minutes.

Winger Stephen McCall was certain he had grounded the ball, but the television match official thought otherwise.

At that stage, Leeds were probably down and out in any case as Rotherham led 20-3, but the referee’s decision, made on television evidence, was yet another setback.

Rotherham, dominating possession and territory, and taking advantage of repeated Leeds handling and lineout mistakes, possessed an individual match winner in their Scottish fly-half Garry Law.

Leeds, though, did make sufficient mistakes to enable Law to demonstrate his goal-kicking expertise.

Little wonder he is the Championship’s leading points scorer, in excess of 200.

Law’s penalties on three, 30, 48 and 67 minutes and a drop-goal in the 12th minute, were crucial, as was his tactical kicking.

Within seconds of Leeds grabbing a steep clearance kick by Law, their attackers, notably Tommy Bell, McCall, Iain Thornley and Peter Lucock were toppled.

Any chance of a Leeds counter attack evaporated instantaneously.

Just as Leeds felt they were harshly treated by the refusal of McCall’s try, so were Rotherham much earlier.

Flanker Sean Dougall, one of five forwards who is leaving for the Premiership or the Pro 12 league, crashed over the Leeds line on 32 minutes having been put through by the rampaging, Worcester-bound Semisi Taulava.

The referee decided that the pass to Dougall was forward. The television replay suggested that his decision was incorrect, but nevertheless it stood.

As it happened, Rotherham did not have to wait long before a legitimate try was awarded. Centre Palepoi Nonu tore a hole in the Leeds defence and then passed to Irish flanker Robin Copeland in support.

Copeland galloped more than 20 metres to the line to score his 12th Championship try and one which was thoroughly deserved given Rotherham’s superiority.

On a shocking afternoon that Leeds will want to forget, they were restricted to scoring a second-half penalty only – a 63rd-minute effort from full-back Bell.

Considering Leeds’s ineptitude in several aspects, coach Diccon Edwards should feel badly let down, and his players are now under an obligation to transform themselves against Bedford.

Edwards lamented: “Everything we have worked for wasn’t produced against a committed Rotherham side.

“We must give them credit for the way they took us on in the contact area.

“We lost possession eight times in the first half and our line-out was put under pressure. Our execution wasn’t what we wanted it to be.

“This is a tough group to be in and every team is capable of beating each other.

“Remember, we have beaten Bedford twice in the league this season.”

Rotherham’s coach Andre Bester said the victory meant that his side were back on course.

“Everything’s to play for now. I take my hat off to the players,” he said.

“We came here to build a score and to shut Leeds out. It was a great defensive effort.

“Losing Dickinson is a blow because we have a small squad but against Leeds we stepped up another gear.

“Now we must concentrate and apply ourselves at Pirates and make sure that we are difficult to beat.”

Leeds Carnegie: Bell, McCall, Thornley, Barrow, Lucock (Davies, 54), Ford, Cliff (Shaw, 60), Lockwood (Mustafa, 55), Titterrell (Nilsen, 55), Aulika, Denton (Beck, 40), Hemingway (Paul, 63), Williamson, Rowan, Burrows.

Rotherham Titans: Foden, Hamilton, McCall, Nonu, Monahan, Law, Williams, Cahill (Kilbane, 64), Baines (Stagg, 65), Hooper, Dickinson (Griffiths, 36), Maddison, Copeland, Dougall, Taulava.

Referee: L Apgeraint-Roberts.