Titans head coach Andre Bester has named an experimental side for their visit to Swansea in the British & Irish Cup on Saturday.
Nevertheless, 16 of the match day squad have played Championship rugby this season. One notable starter is new recruit from Glasgow Warriors Dave McCall. While on the bench and expected to play some part in the game is Jan-Francois Bester.
Bester (Snr) views the Swansea game as a vital exercise in his planning and development of his squad, he explained, “The game gives us the opportunity to give player’s game time and us the opportunity to experiment with certain players in different positions.
“We have a number of experimental positions in the team and it’s important to build our strengths so if we get injuries, we have players that can come in and perform in the Championship. We have brought Byron Godfrey to scrum half; we’ve brought Peter Homan in at inside centre, where in fact he’s played most of his rugby. We have new signing Dave McCall starting at 13 and we are looking forward to see what he can bring to Rotherham. And we are giving Elliott Brierley a run out on the wing.
“We are trying to put pressure on certain players and pressure will make the whole squad perform better. Our main aim is to reach the promotion play-offs and then make sure we have a squad ready to compete at the business end of the season.
“We don’t know too much about Swansea, but the one thing we do know is that the Welsh like to ‘beat-up’ English sides. I expect their scrum to be strong and very physical and there’s not a Welsh side out there that will do you any favours and we don’t expect them to.”
Titans: 15 Stephen Hamilton, 14 Elliott Brierley, 13 Dave McCall, 12 Peter Homan, 11 Jon McMahon, 10 Cliffie Hodgson, 9 Byron Godfrey, 1 Ben Harris, 2 Ross White, 3 Rikki Stout, 4 Ross Noonan, 5 Barney Maddison, 6 Sam Dickinson (Capt.), 7 Carl Kirwan, 8 Ben Wade.
Replacements: Ted Stagg, Shane Cahill, Jamie Kilbane, Adrian Griffiths, Jan-Francois Bester, Matt Rhodes, Ed Tellwright.
Swansea: 15 Barry Davies, 14 Tom Prydie, 13 Lewis Chance, 12 Nick Harwood, 11 Jackson Szabo, 10 Sam Davies, 9 Matthew Torrance, 1 Jamie Kayjaks, 2 Alun Rees, 3 Jo Rees, 4 Jack Jones (Capt.), 5 Richard Kelly, 6 David Blyth, 7 Sam Lewis, 8 Dan Baker.
Replacements: Tomas Owen, Craig Cross, Andrew Gwynne, Ben Davies, Scott Gibson, Nico Setaro, Nicky Thomas.
