Exiles work hard to beat Rotherham

London Irish 47 Rotherham Titans 26

A Zurich Premiership win still eludes basement side Rotherham Titans despite a high-scoring encounter against London Irish at the Madejski Stadium.

Irish were made to work hard for their win after Rotherham refused to give up and fly-half Jason Strange kept the scoreboard ticking over with his reliable kicking.

But the Exiles began firing on all cylinders, running in three tries in just 16 minutes.

Irish winger Justin Bishop was the first over the try line after just two minutes when fly-half Mark Mapletoft kicked a clever penalty across to the left wing.

The Titans were caught unaware as Nils Mordt drove towards the line. The centre was brought down just short but Bishop instead managed to cross the line.

Mapletoft then converted before adding a drop goal.

Rotherham replied with a soft converted try by full-back Jon Benson just minutes later but London Irish soon reasserted their authority with Paul Sackey running in the second converted try.

Titans’ fly-half Strange clawed back three points with a penalty but soon the Exiles galloped into a 24-10 lead with a converted try by Michael Horak.

Mapletoft was again clever in switching the run of play to the left wing to catch Rotherham napping and Horak eventually muscled his way over the try line.

But the game did not continue to go London Irish’s way. Lock Kieran Roche was sin-binned for obstruction and during the 10 minutes Irish were down to 14 men.

Strange booted two penalties and winger Jon Pritchard scored Rotherham’s second try.

The Titans worked hard for their score, going through several phases of play. But when full-back Benson just failed to score the ball went loose behind London Irish’s back line and Mapletoft failed to ground it, leaving Pritchard to score.

Strange converted to leave just one point separating the teams at half-time.

After the restart the visitors stole the lead for the first time with an early penalty by Strange but Mapletoft and his later replacement Barry Everitt steadied the ship with three penalties.

Everitt then added his own attempt to secure a bonus point when his drop goal attempt was blocked by a Rotherham player.

Unluckily for the Titans the ball bounced straight back into Everitt’s arms and he charged up field to score.

Everitt converted to re-establish a 14-point lead before Horak had the final word with an injury-time converted try.