Rotherham Titans' Belgian fan club to fly in for Rams game
A FEW foreign voices will be cheering on Rotherham Titans once more this weekend.
The club’s “Belgian fan club” will be making the trip to Reading to watch the game against Rams.
"Rams is a short one for us,” said Steven Van Noyen, a regular in the travelling party who lives between Brussels and Antwerp.
"We’ve got cheap flights to Heathrow and then we’ll be taking the bus to Reading,”
Steven was first introduced to rugby when he was taken to a Rotherham game by friends from the area more than 25 years ago.
Occasional trips back to watch matches continued from there, taking in fixtures in the Premiership and the Powergen Shield triumph at Twickenham back in 2002.
The tradition has continued and Steven was one of a party of around a dozen who made the trip over to watch Rotherham play against Sedgley Park at Clifton Lane earlier this year.
It took eight hours, beginning with an early-morning journey to catch a flight from Brussels to Manchester and then a train to Doncaster before the final leg to Rotherham.
Coinciding with the year Steven turned 50, he was presented with a match-worn Titans shirt signed by all the players.
"There will be only five of us this time and we’re all looking forward to it,” added Steven.
"It looks like it's going to be a good game because Rams are also high-flying this season.
"We hope to back back to see a game next year. There are plans, not definitive, about going to the away game at Tonbridge in February. That's the closest one for us.”