Coach's pride as in-form Titans march on

Titans ran in seven tries on the way to a 45-15 victory, their fourth on the spin in National One. They had the four-try bonus point secured after only half-an-hour and their five-point haul moves them fourth in the table, just two points off top spot.

“We knew Esher had a lot of threats in certain areas but we concentrated on ourselves in the run-up to the game,” said Barker. “There weren’t massive rugby areas where we looked amazing, the difference was we had a lot of desire and workrate and that’s what got us through. We wanted to work hard for each other and that got us the points, it’s as simple as that.

“We didn’t give them field position through indiscipline, that has been a big thing of ours over the last couple of weeks. The lads put in a professional performance, I’m proud of them.”

Esher had won two on the spin going into the game but were punished for their mistakes. Skipper Seb Nagle-Taylor and wing Henry Roberts scored two tries each and Barker himself went over for the opening score. Scrum-half Alex Dolly also touched down and landed five conversions.  

The home team only made headway was when Rotherham were temporarily reduced to 14 men in the second half after replacement Jack Bergamanas was sin-binned. They scored a couple of quickfire tries but Titans had the last say when Roberts went over for his second of the day.

On his own try, Barker smiled: “I don’t score very often, I'm not used to it. I almost passed it because I didn’t know what to do but there was no-one around me and I went over so I’m happy.”

Rotherham are back in action at home to Plymouth Albion on Saturday (2pm).

Added Barker: “There is a lot of confidence in our team but it is going to be another test against Plymouth. We’ll work hard during the week to get the job done on Saturday."

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