ROSSLYN PARK 56-26 ROTHERHAM TITANS

26/04/25

The 1st XV swept aside Rotherham Titans at The Rock on Saturday to secure a 2nd place finish and end the season on a high note.

Park piled on the pressure straight from kickoff and opened the scoring after just 3 minutes through Jasper Cameron at the back of a maul. The lead was then doubled less than 10 minutes later when Charlie Walker hacked on a loose ball inside his own 22, reeled it in and then raced away to score under the posts. Rotherham then fought their way back level thanks to tries by Ronnie Randt and John Okafor, both coming after lineouts in the Park final third which had come from penalties conceded in the middle of the pitch.

Not to be dismayed by conceding, the 1st XV ended the half with a flurry of tries, all of which were again converted by Josh Bragman who went 7-for-7 on the day and combined with Steffan James to have Park finish the match with perfect accuracy from the tee. The first of the three tries came through Cameron from the back of another maul before this was followed by an incredible score from Tom Stanton as he combined with Ewan Fenley in the 5m channel to squeeze over in the corner. Then, a Joe Luca Smith carry almost resulted in a try in the final minute of the half only for the full-back to be barely held up over the Rotherham line. However, Park kept the pressure on following the subsequent goal-line dropout and a carry by Player of the Match Ali Wade with the clock in the red saw the front row power his way over to hand Park a 21-point lead heading into the break.

In the second half, the visitors pulled one back early on through Okafor again before Park responded with a try by substitute Charlie Mulchrone. After squeezing a scrum penalty in midfield, the Park pack forced another infringement after the lineout which allowed Mulchrone to tap-and-go. The Rotherham defence recovered initially, but Mulchrone popped up again a few phases later to finish the move he started and dot down. The away side replied with another maul try by Ben Wright before Cameron responded in like fashion securing his hat-trick score from the back of yet another maul. The scoring finally began to slow as the match entered the final quarter and things began to tighten up. With 10-minutes to go, a try saving tackle by Dan Laventure looked to have led to a turnover by Henry Spencer inside his own 22, but the referee instead deemed the intervention to have been worthy of a yellow card. Rotherham nearly capitalised immediately on the numbers advantage as Harry Gilson-Fox carried over the Park try-line, but an incredible intervention by Mulchrone prevented him from touching it down, as the scrumhalf got his body under the ball at the final moment. Finally, with the result already all-but secured, Tom Bell cantered over the line in the dying minutes to put the cherry on top of a magnificent attacking performance.

By RHYS STRATTON

ROSSLYN PARK

Tries: Cameron (3’, 31’, 55’), Walker (12’), Stanton (35’), Wade (40’), Mulchrone (49’), Bell (78’)
Conversions: Bragman (4’, 13’, 32’, 36’, 40’, 50’, 56’), James (79’)
Penalties: N/A
Yellow Cards: Spencer (71’)

Team: Wade, Cameron, Woodward, Gillanders, Bell, Spencer, Ellis, Laventure, Fenley, Bragman, Marfo, Cordy-Redden, Stanton, Walker, J. Smith

Replacements: Hay, Cleet, Ledger, Mulchrone, James

ROTHERHAM TITANS

Tries: Randt (20’), Okafor (26’, 44’), Wright (52’)
Conversions: Hayes (21’, 27’, 45’)
Penalties: N/A
Yellow Cards: N/A

Team: Donkor, Bergmanas, Stout, Allan, Gilson-Fox, Okafor, Gordon, Poole, Bruzulier, Povey, Randt, Cooke, Hayes, Tanumi, Townend

Replacements: Wright, Kivalu, Foster, Newborn, Naylor

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Darlington Mowden Park 24 – 54 Rams
Dings Crusaders 26 – 47 Birmingham Moseley
Esher 55 – 14 Sedgley Park
Leicester Lions 38 – 29 Bishop’s Stortford
Richmond 40 – 26 Blackheath
Sale FC 26 – 46 Plymouth Albion

This week in National One saw Leicester secure their place in National One next season with a win over Stortford which condemned Esher to join DMP as the sides being relegated despite their big win over Sedgley Park. Elsewhere, Rams, Moseley and Plymouth all won big away from home whilst Champions Richmond saw off the challenge of Blackheath at home.