Titans lay a marker down with gritty win over Park

Rotherham T .. 31 Rosslyn Park.. 21

■ By DAVID BEDDOWS

NEWLY-promoted Rotherham Titans hit the ground running by taking the scalp of fancied Rosslyn Park.

Both scored three tries in an entertaining encounter that could have flipped either way.

A catch-and-drive try by Luke Cole gave Titans a deserved early advantage, with Lloyd Hayes tagging on the extras and a penalty.

It took Park 23 minutes to get into the home 22 and when they did, Jasper Cameron finished off another line-out drive and Steffan James converted.

Rotherham responded with a try from John Okafor, but the celebrations had barely died down when Joe Luca Smith zipped in to score at the other end. Another Hayes penalty gave the hosts a 20-14 advantage at the half-time break.

Park needed to up it in the second half and they did, Charlie Mulchrone scoring against his old club and with the conversion they led for the first time.

Titans snatched the lead back with another Hayes three-pointer and he also added a conversion to a try by No.8 Callum Bustin to make it 28-21.

The away side were unable to make the extra man count when home scrum-half JB Bruzulier was yellow carded and were made to pay by another Hayes penalty as Rotherham closed out a statement win.