Dolly delivers for Titans to secure first win of the campaign

AN outstanding kicking performance by Rotherham’s full-back Alex Dolly, who finished with a match tally of 24 points from his eight penalties, ensured that the Titans won their first game in National One following relegation from the Championship.

Dolly, born in Sydney but now living in Manchester, was making his full debut for Rotherham at Clifton Lane.

His accuracy, two penalties in the first half and then another six in the second as Rosslyn Park’s indiscipline made certain they’d suffer their first loss, was extraordinary, particularly as Dolly kept his composure under pressure.

“This win gets our season underway. I’m pretty happy and am just doing my job with the goal kicking,” he said.

“I’m not sure whether I’ve scored this many points before, but it’s a great feeling because we came into this match following successive defeats.

“I was at Fylde last season and played in about 20 games in National One and then went to Jersey but when Rotherham offered me a contract I couldn’t turn it down.

“I love it here. The fans get behind us and the coaching and the back-up staff are excellent.”

Dolly prefers to play at scrum-half, but had been asked to appear at full-back by player-coach Joe Barker for the Park game.

And that move paid dividents almost from the start as he pulled the strings

throughout the early stages with ball in hand.

Before the outbreak of indiscipline, Park started superbly.

They scored a try after only two minutes by number eight Hugo Ellis, but from then onwards, Rotherham’s sharp tackling and Dolly’s remarkable place kicking set up an encouraging win.

The Titans also scored an excellent try by winger Henry Roberts in the seventh minute during a close first half in which Rotherham led 11-7 at the interval.

Park tried to be enterprising and efforts were rewarded by a try from flanker Arthur Ellis cutting the gap to only 14-12.

But indiscipline deteriorated as Dolly put over five more penalties on 62, 70, 73, 75 and 80 minutes

Rotherham were also delighted with the performance of Anton Petrowitsch, the Chilean international, who stood out in the second row, and started only because of a warm-up injury suffered by Dan Preston-Routledge.

After a rocky start to the season, the club have something to build on moving forwards for the rest of the season.