Second half slip stuns Titans

The Clifton Lane men went down 37-21 on home soil after shipping 31 second half points.

They did show tenacity, keeping the Leeds side on their guard and preventing them from running away with it but Burnell clearly saw the downside.

“The biggest disappointment for me was that we didn’t control our own aspect of play in the second half,” he said.

“We just made far too many mistakes and when you make mistakes against a quality side they will punish you more often than not.”

In a tight first half, Rotherham led 7-6 thanks to a Joe Barker try against his former side, converted by Will Robinson, in response to two earlier penalties from the influential Joe Ford, the elder brother of England star George.

But it went awry after the break as Carnegie went back in front thanks to full-back Steve McColl and then former Titan Rob O’Donnell touched down from a maul, Ford’s conversions making it 23-7.

To their credit, Titans never gave up and former Wath Comprehensive pupil James Sanderson snaffled an interception to race in from 40m and make it 23-14.

But Leeds were always able to keep their rivals at arm’s length.

Alex Gray scored their third try before Will Goodin replied for the home men, finishing off a superb move but hopes of a bonus were extinguished when O’Donnell scored his second late in the game.

“We’ll have to regroup and move on to the next game now,” said Burnell afterwards. “It’s important that we do those simple things right.”

You can catch all the analysis and a preview of Friday's clash at Bedford in Friday's Advertiser.