Rotherham Titans chief recognises huge effort and a missed chance after tight loss at Plymouth Albion

Titans ended with 14 men after the dismissal of skipper Zak Poole in the 23-20 defeat to Plymouth Albion, who have now won ten on the spin.

Already hit by injuries in the pack, Rotherham bagged a losing bonus point with a late try by Ronnie du Randt. It was only their fourth loss of the season in National One and their first since the turn of the year.

Biljon told the Advertiser: "When you’re down to 14 men away from home in a position like that, two things can happen. You can explode or stay and make it an arm wrestle. Rotherham Titans did that and kept in a position to go and win the game. It was one hell of an effort.

“Plymouth is a really tough place to go, especially against a team that has a lot of confidence and momentum at the moment.

"The plan, the strategy and everything that went into the preparation during the week was very good.

"What will sit with the players and maybe even the coaching staff is that we missed a big opportunity to get a result.

"Never mind everything else that is going on. We had a day down there, the weather was good, the pitch was good and both teams were up for it.

"To come away with a bonus point considering all the adversity with two yellow cards and a red card was still pretty good.

"We were pushing to win the game at the end.”

Hooker Morgan Veness, on loan from Cambridge RUFC, and no.8 Callum Bustin scored Titans’ other tries and Lloyd Hayes kicked five points.

A draw for leaders Richmond against Birmingham Moseley on Friday night means Titans trail the Londoners by five points ahead of Saturday’s visit of Sedgley Park (2pm ko).

Added Biljon: “We’ve very quickly got to move on. We’ve got Sedgley Park coming up who have come off two fantastic results against Blackheath and Rams. What we need to do is that we get focussed for training on Tuesday and Thursday and ready to go in front of our home supporters.”