Gatecrashers ready to spoil the party again
THE wider rugby public might have rather lost track of Rotherham Titans since they slipped out of the Premiership and then the Championship but, have no fear, the Yorkies are alive and kicking and enjoying their rugby. Indeed, last season they were right up there in National League 2 North slugging it out with the likes of Hull and Sedgley Park before finishing an honourable third.
Life is good at Clifton Lane again. They have found their natural level and are very competitive, but their travails in the upper echelons remain fresh in the minds of many. They reached for the stars and ultimately fell but it was some journey. Three times they were ‘promoted’ to the very top tier although only twice were they allowed to take their place. Both times they were relegated but, against huge odds, they fought the good fight and there were also moments in Europe to remember.
In the 2000-2001 season, they won four of their six games in the European Shield including the double over Grenoble and a famous 20-19 win at Perpignan. Just for a while they dined at rugby’s top table.
The club were founded in 1923 and for decades they were a solid competitive side on the Yorkshire and northern circuits before the advent of Leagues in 1987, when the RFU – with little appreciation of Rotherham's capabilities – placed them in North East 2, way below their true level. It was an insult but Roth used it positively as they romped up through the Leagues and built real momentum.
That collective spirit served them brilliantly but the dilemma for all such clubs was always how to augment the close-knit start-up squad – for want of a better phrase – when called upon to make the giant leap into the Premiership. Too many changes and you lose the chemistry, too few and you can struggle to compete.
Come that big moment it all went pear-shaped for Rotherham, just two wins in that 2000-2001 Premiership season, with the club’s lack of strength in depth being cruelly exposed in the second half of the campaign. Up until then, there had been moments of heady encouragement; famous wins at home to Saracens and London Irish and picking up losing bonus points against Bristol and Gloucester.
There was much to admire but ultimately they tailed off badly when they hit the wall and their slender playing resources were brutally exposed. Being Rotherham, they stormed back the following season taking the Championship with 24 wins in 26 games but their intention of returning immediately was thwarted when Premiership Rugby invoked their ground criteria and rejected both Clifton Lane and Millmoor – home of Rotherham FC – as potential home venues.
Rotherham, and their homely but modest Clifton Lane ground in particular did not fit the glossy image Premiership Rugby wished to portray. They were considered scruffy gatecrashers.
It got very dirty with accusations that a number of Premiership club chairmen had effectively offered – or at least discussed the idea – a payment to Rotherham a considerable cash sum for ‘failing’ the ground criteria in the event of them winning promotion. The RFU set up an investigation – which took five months – chaired by Anthony Arlidge QC that ruled that although finding no evidence of payments there had clearly been informal discussions about the idea. Four Premiership chairmen and Rotherham chairman Mike Yarlett were given a slap on the wrists. Premier Rugby were also ordered to pay £90,000 towards the costs (£300,000) of the inquiry.
RFU Disciplinary Chairman Commodore Jeff Blackett QC did not mince his words on receiving the report. “This whole affair has been caused because some who are involved are motivated solely by selfinterest. This has apparently fuelled a willingness to sidestep regulations, ignore the authority of the RFU and attempt to bring pressure to bear through the media.
“An essential part of rugby is that those involved have trust in each other, while acknowledging the pre-eminence of the RFU, to whom disputes and allegations of wrongdoing should be referred for resolution. If that trust and mutual respect are undermined we risk losing part of the strength of the game.”
The entire process was a festering sore but on the field
Rotherham angrily barnstormed their way through National Divison One in 2002-3 and then secured their place in the Premiership by defeating Worcester in the play-offs, with the Premiership, on this occasion, accepting that Millmoor was fit or purpose.
It was however a Pyrrhic victory. Always chronically short of finance in an arena in which top players came at a cost and denied RFU funding to start an Academy – funding which all the other Premiership clubs were allowed – Roth were in a bad place and their Premiership campaign went from bad to worse.
Collectively, they hit the wall losing all 22 Premiership games, not gaining a single try bonus and garnering just three losing bonus points. By the end of the season they were 34 points behind 11th placed Leeds Tykes.
Although Yarlett called it a day, Rotherham kept battling on and refused to go the way of others.
Nick Cragg and Martin Jenkinson stepped in, supporters organised fund raisers, players accepted huge wage cuts and Rotherham Council, mindful of the club’s excellent work with the local community, offered as much support as they could. Somehow, they survived.
The fires still burned, good habits remained, and the club and its coaches still had an eye for young talent – David Strettle, Gareth Steenson and Sam Dickinson – and a knack of employing value for money overseas players such as Errie Classens and Ramiro Pez.
Rotherham steadied the ship and there was even a second place in 2007 although mid table respectability became the norm. As recently as 2015 they reached the play-offs but the real decline started soon after and they were eventually relegated from the Championship at the end of the 2019-20 season.