Jersey left Clifton Lane with two hard-earned points after a
20-20 draw against Rotherham.
The match was a ding-dong encounter with the lead changing hands
several times, but the Islanders had the satisfaction of their best
result in three visits to Rotherham, and maintained their status in
eighth place in the Greene King IPA Championship.
Aaron Penberthy gave the visitors an early lead when Titans
infringed at the opening scrum, but the Titans scored the first try
from a rolling maul finished by flanker Max Argyle with 11 minutes
played.
The remainder of the half featured a yellow card for each side -
Jersey's Dave Markham and Curtis Wilson of Rotherham - but no
further points, with a combination of good defence and errors in
execution from both sides. Jersey were probably the happier team at
half-time after surviving a late burst of pressure.
Wilson was still off at the start of the second period, Jersey
began on the front foot and only an illegal tackle from James
McKinney prevented a try in the corner. The fly-half saw yellow for
the offence, taking his team down to 13 men, and Jersey were
awarded a penalty try to regain the lead (7-10).
Although Jordan Davies, stepping up to kicking duties in McKinney's
absence, drew Rotherham level with a penalty, some sustained Jersey
pressure eventually saw Mark McCrea cross for a try between the
posts, a similar effort to his winning score against Nottingham at
St Peter the previous weekend.
Powerful forward drives led to 10 points for Rotherham around the
hour mark - Davies chipped over a drop goal and then a maul was
taken down, earning Jersey's Martin Garcia-Veiga a yellow card and
a penalty try for the Titans.
Another scrum penalty allowed Penberthy to level the scores with
just over 10 minutes left. Both sides had chances to win the match
in the closing stages, the closest being when Rotherham worked a
promising drop goal opportunity for McKinney, only for Jonny
Bentley to charge the ball down.
Harvey Biljon said: "A draw is a pretty good result for us away
from home - this is still a tough place to come and play and it was
an intense contest. The first half was frustrating and I think it
was important that we were only four points down at the
break.
"We had made some unforced errors in the first half which made life
difficult, but we weathered the storm up to the break and were then
able to discuss what we would do to correct them.
"We knew there was a man advantage to come at the start of the
second half [after Curtis Wilson earned the first of two yellow
cards for the home side] and really focused on getting points then,
which we did. After that, my feelings are mixed - we did have
opportunities to get the win, but so did Rotherham, and in that
sense I can't be too disappointed."
Rotherham
Tries: Argyle 11, Penalty try 67
Cons: McKinney 11, 67
Pen: Davies 48
Drop: Davies 57
Jersey
Tries: Penalty try 43, McCrea 52
Cons: Penberthy 43, 52
Pens: Penberthy 2, 69
Titans: 15 Sean Scanlon, 14 Michael Keating, 13
Jordan Davies (Hayes 54), 12 Mark Cooke, 11 Curtis Wilson (YC 38),
10 James McKinney (YC 43), 9 Dan White, 1 Robin Hislop (Williams
52), 2 Tom Cruse, 3 Lewis Thiede (Tampin 52), 4 Barney Maddison, 5
Tom Holmes (Capt.) (Ryan 49), 6 Max Argyle, 7 Alex Rieder, 8 Ben
Morris.
Replacements: 16 Jack Preece, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Mark
Tampin, 19 Willie Ryan, 20 Lloyd Hayes, 21 Tom Barrett, 22 Jamie
Broadley.
Jersey: 15 Aaron Penberthy, 14 Mark Foster (Bishop
65), 13 Drew Locke, 12 Lewis Robling, 11 Mark McCrea, 10 Jonny
Bentley, 9 Samisoni Fisilau (Glynn 57), 1 Sam Lockwood (Lancuba
75), 2 Joe Buckle (Garcia-Veiga 49), 3 Harry Williams, 4 Nick
Campbell, 5 Dave Markham (YC 29) (Graham 54) (Selway 66-70), 6 Alex
Rae (Capt.), 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Michael Noone (Kaho 49).
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Lancuba, 17 Martin Garcia-Veiga
(YC 66), 18 Nick Selway, 19 Gary Graham, 20 Paula Kaho, 21 Ryan
Glynn, 22 David Bishop.
Referee: Matt O'Grady
Attendance: 1,018
Half-time: 7-3
