No panic at Rotherham Titans despite alarming freefall

The Clifton Lane men have slumped to 10th in the 12-team division and would have plummeted to 11th had it not been for the 20-point deduction meted out to crisis club London Welsh.

Two wins over the last month for bottom-markers Richmond, allied with their own dip in form, has seen alarm bells ringing for some sections of the Titans support.

But Cragg insists there are no such signs of panic in the boardroom – with the anticipated return of a host of injured stars giving the club hope that a change in fortunes is just around the corner.

Burnell was brought in last February after his fellow Welshman Mark Jones had been relieved of his duties, with the Titans sat in 10th position at the time.

But despite the symmetary of the present predicament, Cragg remains positive that the Titans will not be sucked into a relegation shootout.

“We are hugely depleted at the moment,” said Cragg in reference to the fact they had six dual-registered players parachuted in to the squad for Sunday’s defeat to London Scottish.

“We also had loan players from Hull Ionians for the game against Donny. Once we start getting some of our key players back – Jack Hayes, Will Owen, Will Goodwin, Will Robinson, Charlie and Ben Foley – we’re confident we can start climbing the league again.

“I was upset after the defeat to Scottish, but a day later, having had time to reflect, I’m very positive about our prospects.

“There’s no panic here at this moment in time.”

Reading between the lines it appears Burnell has credit in the bank for steering Rotherham away from relegation trouble last season.

The dillignet, one-to-onecoaching methods applied by him and his staff – which includes rookie backs coach Jon Clarke –is also understood to be well-received by the players.

“Justin Burnell can only do what he can do with the players he has at his disposal,” said Cragg, whose club continue to fight rising costs as well as a busy treatment table.

“It’s a different set of circumstances to last season (when Jones was sacked). We’d lost 10 games in a row. It could be argued that Justin came in and saved us from relegation.

“We are not anywhere near panicking. We are confidently still talking about the top four.”

Titans now have three weeks off to allow their injured players to come back into the team, and they are not in Championship action again until they host Richmond at Clifton Lane on Saturday, January 28.

That is a game of huge significance, one which could decide whether they spend the rest of the season fighting relegation, or launching a late bid for the top four play-offs.

“I went to see Richmond at Doncaster and from our perspective, I was encouraged,” said Cragg after the Londoners were soundly beaten by the Knights.

“Obviously we’re not happy being in this position and four wins is not a great record, but anybody can beat anybody in this division.”

That is a belief echoed within the coaching staff, by first-year backs coach Clarke.

“If you can get a couple of wins you’ll shoot up the table,” said the former Northampton and Yorkshire Carnegie centre. “We feel like we are almost there and if we can put in an 80-minute performance we’ll show people what a good team we can be.

“Right now we’re having 20-minute periods in games where things aren’t going for us and those games are getting away from us.

“It’s frustrating. We’ve got to find the answer to that problem and we’ll keep our heads down until we resolve it.

“But there’s no panic. It’s not a major thing and it’s something we are confident we can put right.”