Richmond win again to pile more misery on Rotherham
RICHMOND triumphed in a ferocious battle between the two bottom clubs at Clifton Lane to record their second successive Championship victory.
It lifts the the London team nine points clear of the South Yorkshire side who have now suffered five consecutive league defeats.
Richmond, with two tries by scrum-half Luc Jones and one each by lock Chris Davies and flanker Toby Saysell, performed impressively throughout. They took their scoring opportunities with a killer instinct and capitalised on Rotherham’s mistakes to steal the initiative from Titans.
While Rotherham scored three tries from prop Toby Williams, winger Ben Foley and full-back Will Thomas, they seldom looked capable of winning such an important match and despite promising positions, lacked the force to penetrate Richmond’s stubborn defence.
Richmond coach Steve Hill said: “The boys are thrilled and to come away with a bonus point is a massive thing for us. I thought our defence was excellent and we kept the ball well to build pressure.
“It’s still early days, but last year it took us nine games to get our first win; now this season we’ve got two wins in our opening five games.
“We have learnt the lessons from last season and the guys who were National One players are now Championship players and I have huge admiration for them.
“They train four evenings and twice in the morning and then have full time jobs, so lots of credit to them to be competing against full time pros.”
Unless there is a transformation in form and results, Rotherham, struggling for the third consecutive campaign, will be playing in National One next season and coach Andy Key faces a mountainous challenge.
Key said: “I am massively disappointed by our collective and individual performance. I can’t knock the guys, who train hard, but we keep conceding too many tries and we do it too easily.
“We gave Richmond chances through our mistakes and indiscipline. We
are making poor decisions and the wrong decisions. We showed we are capable of playing 10 minutes at a time, 10 minutes here and then 10 minutes there, but that will never make a side.”
No one punished Rotherham’s errors more than Richmond full-back Rob Kirby, whose knocked over thee penalties and converted neat scores by Jones and Davies for a 20-14 half-time lead. Kirby’s 17 points, together with his flair in attack and solidity in defence, showed what Rotherham lack.
While the Titans had sufficient ball to break through, they failed to take their opportunities and even when Richmond were reduced to 14 men following the sin-binning of lock Davies on 48 minutes for bringing down a maul, they managed to score only one penalty, whereas the Londoners added a third try when scrum-half Jones dashed over for his second in the 56th. Kirby converted to stretch the lead to 30-17.
Thomas did hit back for Titans but Saysell had ther last word with a try at the death for Richmond.
Game over and Rotherham face a deep crisis.