Key vows to get Titans playing ‘with heart and gut’ again

INCOMING Rotherham head coach Andy Key wants to put the pride back in the Titans jersey and let opponents know they’ve “been in a game”.

A terrible run of results cost Justin Burnell his job earlier this week and the Championship’s secondworst side wasted no time in appointing dyed-in-the-wool Leicester man Key for next season.

In terms of his playing philosophy, it is no surprise that the 58-year-old former Premiership DoR of the Year, below, would like to bring the best of the Tigers to Clifton Lane, with good old-fashioned pragmatism sprinkled with a bit of Southern Hemisphere star dust.

He said: “I have worked with people like Paddy Howard and Joel Stransky at Leicester and I like my teams to play. You need to be well-conditioned to do that. But I also know that you’ve got to have a set of uncompromising forwards. “It is about finding the right balance, and I think Rotherham’s scrum this year has been pretty tidy. “We’ll be a physical side and will have a very strong defence; sides will know they have been in a game when they will play us.” As well as Leicester, Key has coached at Bedford, Leeds, L’Aquila in Italy, Cambridge University and, most recently, at Leicester Lions. After a six-year gap, Key is delighted to be back in professional club rugby in England and determined to put the heart and soul back into the Titans.

He added: “We need to bring back those very clear values that the club has had in the past. I’m not saying they have all gone but you get a feeling that they’re not loved as much as they once were.

“Players have to be at the club for the right reasons. We need those who are going to give their right arm for the club and play with their heart and their gut.”

Key will see out the rest of this season with the Lions in Two North, but has already found areas where the Titans can improve – fitness being one of them.

“I watched a good halfdozen Rotherham games and I don’t believe we’re as fit as we need to be or can be. I’m still working out if that’s a reflection on the structure we’ve got and the opportunities that the players may or may not have had, or if it’s a player thing.

“But it is clear when you watch the top four sides that there is clear difference in fitness levels over the 80 minutes.”