Rotherham Titans 24 London Scottish 27: Titans denied first win of season by try in '˜Fergie time'

Rotherham Titans were denied their first Championship victory of the season by a try in the tenth minute of injury time.
Titans' Yiannis Loizias is challenged in the air against Scottish. Picture Scott MerryleesTitans' Yiannis Loizias is challenged in the air against Scottish. Picture Scott Merrylees
Titans' Yiannis Loizias is challenged in the air against Scottish. Picture Scott Merrylees

London Scottish winger Craig Holland went over for a try in the tenth minute of injury time to give the visitors a 27-24 victory at Clifton Lane.

The late drama was heart-breaking for Titans, who had been the better side for much of the game and would have fully deserved their first win of the season.

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Titans s soon trailed 7-0 but hit back in style in the 22nd minute as the ball arrived with scrum half Rhodri Davies from a line out and the Welshman showed terrific pace and awareness to skip through the defence to score a fine try. Caolan Ryan added the extras to level.

The hosts added a well-deserved second try when Davies again showed his class, making a blind side break, before accelerating away to score near the posts. Ryan’s extras put Titans 14-7 ahead.

It was 17-7 at the end of first half injury when Ryan knocked over a penalty.

Within eight minutes of the restart Scottish levelled following a penalty and a second converted try. And 10 minutes from time the visitors nosed ahead with a penalty after Rotherham were penalised for offside.

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Five minutes from the end home winger Ben Foley charged down a clearing kick and hacked on into the try-scoring zone. As he was about to dot down he was taken out off the ball by Scottish replacement Charlie Ingall. The referee awarded a penalty try to give Rotherham a 24-20 lead and yellow carded the offender.

Quite where 10 minutes of injury time came from at the end no one in the ground appeared to know afterwards. However, credit to Scottish as they never gave up and you could almost hear a pin drop when winger Craig Holland crashed over at the death.

A disappointed coach Andy Key said: “I really don’t understand where all the injury time came from at the end.

“I’ve got to bite my lip a little, but I think they’ve got to take a hard look at London Scottish and opportunities that could have come our way with regards to them being offside.”

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* Scorers - Rotherham: Davies (2T), Penalty Try, Ryan (P, 2C); London Scottish: Miller (2T), Holland (T), Sharp (2P, 3C)

Titans: 15 Will Thomas, 14 Ben Foley, 13 Yiannis Loizias (Hamilton 29), 12 Logan Tibbetts, 11 Drew Cheshire, 10 Caolan Ryan, 9 Rhodri Davies, 1 Tom Williams (Toby Williams 60), 2 Luke Cole (Murphy 54), 3 Matt Shields (Palmer 67), 4 Adam Peters, 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Tom Calladine (Capt.), 7 Charlie Maddison (Postlethwaite 72), Tom Burns (Grange 67).

Replacements: 16 Jonny Murphy, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Brandon Palmer, 19 Matt Postlethwaite, 20 Dan Grange, 21 Lee Millar, 22 Wesley Hamilton.

London Scottish: 15 Fraser Lyle (Ingall 67), 14 Matt Williams, 13 Ross Neal, 12 Ben Mosses, 11 Craig Holland, 10 Jake Sharp, 9 Alex Walker, 1 Derrick Appiah (Christie 72), 2 Isaac Miller (George72), 3 Ewan McQuillin (Cringle 53), 4 Ed Milne, 5 Jonathan Mills (Capt.), 6 Gregor Gillanders, 7 Chris Walker (Marley 73), 8 Joe Atkinson.

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Replacements: 16 Dan George, 17 Ben Onyeama Christie, 18 Phil Cringle, 19 Matt Marley, 20 Max Berry, 21 Ed Hoadley, 22 Charlie Ingall.

Referee: Matthew O’Grady

Attendance: 634

Yellow Card: Ingall (Scottish)