Frustration as Rotherham Titans lose unbeaten record away to Fylde

Titans went down 21-17 away to National Two North promotion rivals Fylde on a frustrating afternoon at Woodlands.

Despite frequent spells of pressure, Rotherham trailed throughout and didn’t make enough of their frequent visits to the opposition 22.

“We gave ourselves opportunities and put ourselves in good positions but we weren’t clinical with it,” said Byron.

“For the majority of the game we did everything right. It was just that five metres of the pitch where we didn’t come away with points.

“The frustration is that the match was there to be won but we didn’t grasp it.”

Harry Newborn and Zak Poole were held up over the line in the first half but Fylde, who also lost a man to the sin bin, ended it 6-0 up with two penalties from range by Greg Smith.

Fly-half Smith slotted another three pointer soon after the break before a try from centre Harry Dunne finally got Titans on the scoreboard.

Rotherham’s first visit to Fylde in 23 years attracted a season's best crowd of more than 800 and the hosts responded with two scores from Matt Sturgess and Henry Hadfield, one of which was converted, to open up a 21-5 lead.

Titans’ power up front did tell late on with two tries from number 8 Callum Bustin, taking his season’s tally to 14. Matt Minogue tagged on a conversion off the last kick as the visitors collected a losing bonus point.

Fylde maintained their unbeaten home record and move second. Rotherham drop to fifth, 12 points behind leaders Hull but with two games in hand on them and three in hand on Fylde.

On Saturday Titans are on the road again, away to Stourbridge, who moved third with a victory at Loughborough. Hull beat Tynedale 60-10 while Sedgley Park didn’t play.

“There is still a lot of rugby to be played,” added Byron. “We still have to go and meet a lot of the top teams and we will take points off them.”