Rotherham Titans skipper expects strong response to defeats

Seb Nagle-Taylor carries the fight to Cambridge last week. Pictures: STEVE METTAM

Nagle-Taylor notched his 11th try of the season in last week’s tussle with Cambridge but had the gloss taken off the afternoon by the 25-14 defeat.

As Rotherham prepare for a first ever trip to Caldy, he agrees minds will have been concentrated among a group of players who were getting plenty of pats on the back after a five-match winning streak not so long ago.

He told the Advertiser: “At this point it can go one or two ways but I have confidence that the Cambridge result is going to be the fire that we need beneath us to re-group and come back harder. I have every confidence that the boys we will train hard and come in with the right mindset because the thing we all know is that we didn’t go prepared into that second half against Cambridge and we’ll look to rectify that.

“We know we under-achieved. We drive very high standards here, no-one will hang their hat on that performance and rightly so. We demand more of ourselves as team and as individuals and we all know what we need to work on.”

Nagle-Taylor was as perplexed as the Clifton Lane coaching staff at the way discipline, the Titans’ strong suit in their winning run, let the team down after they’d turned around 11-0 up last weekend.

“We had the ascendency in the first half and didn’t put our foot down in the second half,” he said. “Credit to Cambridge. They came out and played a good brand of rugby and we didn’t come back with what we needed to.

Callum Irvine...fit for selection this weekend.

“Discipline let us down, it’s where we conceded points, it’s massive.

“From a personal point of view, it is nice to score but it is better to win."

Callum Irvine features after recovering from the heavy knock that forced him off against Cambridge. However the man he'd earlier replaced, full-back Sam Allan, is expected to be out for three weeks with an ankle strain.

Rotherham have made five changes in all. Dan Preston-Routledge returns from injury for Conor Keys in the second row while in the back row Luis Ball is in for Tom Cotterill, who drops to the bench.

The three changes in the backs see Irvine start in place of Allan, Harry Dunne in at outside centre for the injured Jamie Cooke and fit-again wing Dan Leake back for Henry Roberts.

Kick-off is 2pm.

More from the Clifton Lane camp in this week's Advertiser.