Praise for depleted Titans after derby win drama

Drew Cheshire scores for Rotherham. Pic: ANDY GARNER

COACH Nic Rouse has given his depleted Titans side a huge pat on the back after their dramatic weekend win over Yorkshire Carnegie.

They came from 19-6 down midway through the second half to grab a 30-24 victory, only their second of the season, chiefly due to three tries in a mad 12 minutes.

Drew Cheshire bagged a double and Jake Henry added the other and Rouse revealed afterwards that the injury crisis at the Lane had bitten so deeply that he could only put four men on the bench - and one of them wasn't fit to play. The problem was so acute that three players named for subs roles didn't even get changed .

Said Rouse afterwards: “This week has been the toughest week of the year for me as a coach and in terms of preparing the boys; at times we only had 12 boys training and we had to play football.

“The numbers were so low in training it was difficult and our best session was the team run on Friday. We only had four boys on the bench today and one of those wasn’t really fit enough to go on, so effectively we only had three replacements.

“In the game we wanted to play some rugby against Carnegie and we wanted to take a bit of sting out of them. They rarely kick the ball so we needed to be good defensively and I was massively impressed with the boys in that area. Our patience and discipline was very good and I am very proud of the lads.”