Nottingham 11 Rotherham Titans 17: Cree on a roll as Titans enjoy big road win

After their sixth win in nine contests, the Clifton Lane side are developing into a team to be reckoned with.

Rotherham stay fifth in the Championship and what was encouraging about this victory was the display of the pack which mastered the filthy conditions, none more so than Australian 
No 8 Tim Cree who has seldom played in rain, a swirling wind and thick mud.

Cree, who was playing in Canberra before joining the Titans last summer, scored two tries, one in each half, as he capitalised on the superior work put in by his colleagues.

His scores on 26 and 64 minutes were set up by successful line outs which turned into rolling mauls that Nottingham’s pack could not deal with, and with fly- half Ross Jones converting both Cree’s tries, Rotherham extended their lead to 17-8.

The Titans’ pack, in which the former Nottingham flanker Tom Calladine excelled on his return to The Bay, may have been rather slow in the opening 20 minutes, but for the next hour, they repelled the majority of Nottingham’s assaults.

Nottingham were forced into making several mistakes in promising positions when they arguably should have scored.

The only occasion when the Titans’ defence was broken came in the 53rd minute as the Nottingham forwards created a try for prop Conor Carey.

Surprisingly, the conversion was missed by fly-half Dan Mugford which was not the first let-off for a Rotherham side that has recovered strongly from the embarrassing defeat at Bedford last month by overturning London Welsh and now Nottingham, who would have been favourites to win at home after consecutive wins against Jersey, London Scottish and London Welsh.

In the last few minutes, Nottingham chose to kick a simple penalty rather than going for the try and the conversion.

Rotherham were in front by only 17-8 and were no doubt relieved their opponents opted instead for just the three points.

As well as coping successfully with periods of Nottingham pressure, Rotherham also prevented Nottingham counter-attacking twice in added time when, if they had broken free upfield, a late converted try would have seized the spoils.

The Titans, though, stayed calm, won a scrum against the head and then seconds later forced a knock on as the tense contest reached its climax.

After dominating the conditions, coach Mark Jones was understandably impressed.

“We started poorly but played the last 60 minutes really well. We had good control of the set piece and the rolling maul worked well too,” said Jones.

“This win is a big result for us and has given us a bit of momentum. The replacements who came on also did well. Tim Cree has developed surely but slowly and has adapted his game to the Championship. He’s brought a real physical edge to our play and put in a good day’s shift against a team that has been on a roll.

“This was a solid team effort. I thought our Canadian international flanker Kyle Gilmour was good and showed his quality when he replaced Calladine.

“The point about Gilmour is that he will force our other back row players to perform to a higher standard.”

As regards Cree, the Australian was reluctant to attach too much importance to his own efforts towards Rotherham’s fully-deserved win.

“We have worked collectively hard on our rolling maul and I just happened to be on the end of two,” he said. “We were really happy with the performance and the result given the conditions, which I am not used to.

“I am used to dry pitches and an expansive game, but that was not possible here. I am loving the challenge of playing in alien conditions and I love it at Rotherham where the players have given me a lot of friendship and support.

“I’m relieved to score twice – my wife told me before the game that if I didn’t score twice she wouldn’t let me back in the house!”

Nottingham: Richard, Coghlan Murray, Woods, Stevens, Hammond, Mugford, Veenendaal (McConnell 60), Davies, Vickers (Harris 60), Carey, Freeman, Montague, Morris, Langley, Grant.

Rotherham Titans: Scanlon, Rath, Hayes, Barker, Keating, Jones, Carter(Davies 70), Cromie (Hislop 55), Preece, Thiede (Tampin 55), Holmes, Maddison, Argyle, Calladine (Gilmour 66), Cree.

Referee: John Meredith.