After winning their last two games the Roosters travelled to Norfolk looking for a first ever win at Thetford. The late withdrawls of Michael Drake, Steve Hill and Jamie Noble hampered their preparation but they were boosted by the return of Marco Rossi to the side.
The game started badly for the Roosters as early Titans pressure led to a drop out under the posts. From the kick they opened the scoring with an unconverted try after 4 minutes.
The Roosters came back into the game after they received a penalty for a high tackle. Strong running by Rossi set up Roosters hooker Andy Dean to score in the corner to equal the scores.
They extended their lead after 15 minutes when a break in midfield set up Duncan Potts to score which was converted by Michael Sykes.
Half way through the first period the Titans scored a second try through Leon but missed the conversion to maintain a slender lead for the Roosters.
The bigger Thetford side started to use the size and their physical approach gave the referee a lot of problems. Some of the Roosters players began to get frustrated at the lack of protection offered and this resulted in David Sykes being yellow carded after 30 minutes.
This did not hamper the Roosters. With 7 minutes of the half remaining the Roosters nearly extended their lead through Jack Blackley. He picked up a loose ball to cross the line only for the referee to disallow the try. The pressure was maintained though as John Paxton scored with two minutes to go with M.Sykes successful with the conversion.
There was drama before the end of the half as the Titans scrum half was sent off for a head butt on Jack Blackley. Crucially the Roosters let Thetford back into the game in injury time as Reynolds scored an unconverted try which was followed up by immediate score to give the Norfolk side an 18 – 16 half time lead.
At the start of the second half the Roosters looked to use their one man advantage and they did this as Charles Paxton used the overlap to score a well worked try in the right hand corner. Michael Sykes successfully converted as the Roosters went in front by 22 – 18.
With 30 minutes remaining the game was there to be won. Unfortunately for the Roosters it was the Titans who took the initiative. St Ives struggled to contain the strong running physical Thetford side and they took the lead after the Roosters were caught by a quick play the ball. They scored two more tries before the end of the half to extend their lead to 34 – 22.
Roosters Head Coach Ian Hill commented “Thetford is a difficult place to get a result. After giving ourselves a great chance of winning the game. We failed to capitalise on our hard work in the first half and the one man advantage in the second”.
Next Saturday 23rd June the Roosters are at home to league leaders Bedford Tigers with a 2.30pm kick off.