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Rotherham Rugby Union Football Club, or Rotherham Titans is a rugby union Sports club from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, currently playing in the third tier of the English rugby union league system, following their promotion from the National League 2 North at the end of the 2023–2024 season.
Rotherham achieved multiple promotions within the league structure in the 1990s and early 2000s. This meteoric rise ultimately culminated in two unsuccessful spells in the English Premiership. Rotherham is perhaps best known for the Rugby Football Union blocking its entry into the Premiership, its subsequent legal challenges, and a partially successful appeal to the Office of Fair Trading to break an alleged Premiership cartel.[1]
Rotherham have developed several international players, including David Strettle, Hendre Fourie and Erik Lund.
Rotherham in common with many clubs shut down during the Second World War and the club was reformed in 1946 at Clifton Lane. The next fifteen years were a struggle in terms of running teams and raising finance to improve facilities. The club received a big boost when a local secondary modern school started rugby and soon a regular supply of players were coming through. Rugby started to be played in many local schools and the arrival of a number of Physical Education teachers in the area who were rugby specialists helped both the playing standard and the club organisation.
Prior to the advent of a national league structure, Rotherham struggled to get fixtures against establishment sides, largely from the south of England, meaning when the league was established they were placed well down the league structure despite always showing an ambition to develop. This perceived snub by other top teams, and placement at the bottom of the rugby hierarchy fired the initial drive up the leagues and led to several former players such as Mike Yarlett investing their time and resources to transform the club.
This period in the club's development was later to be considered the start of the "golden decade", and secured legendary status for several players including John Dudley, Richard Selkirk, Craig West and Kevin Plant. During this period Rotherham attracted some criticism for their early adoption of paying players during a period later referred to as "Shamateurism" as most progressive clubs in essence paid their players while keeping up the pretence of being Amateur clubs.
In this era, the Yorkshire Cup, still a prestigious competition in which all the top Yorkshire sides competed, became a symbolic quest for the Rotherham players and management. The competition had been dominated for the previous 25 years by Wakefield, Harrogate and the four big Leeds clubs, Headingley, Roundhay, Morley and Otley, none of whom would give Rotherham a fixture prior to the introduction of league rugby. Rotherham reached the final for the first time in their history in 1993, going down 22–5 to Otley, however 2 years later there was no doubting that Rotherham had arrived as they defeated Harrogate 39–3 at Kirkstall to win the Cup for the first and to date only time.
The 1994 County Championship final at Twickenham also provided further evidence of Rotherham's ascent to senior club status in Yorkshire, as Kevin Plant and Craig West were members of the Yorkshire side (along with soon to be Rotherham scrum-half Guy Easterby — then with Harrogate) who won the championship in exhilarating fashion with a 26–3 triumph over Durham.
Summarising the success in 1995, the independent put Rotherham's success into context saying:
The club endured a torrid yet promising year as they struggled to win games, several were lost by mere points. However, highlights of the season included victories at Clifton Lane against London Irish (19–18) and Saracens (19–8), which saw some of the biggest attendances in the club's history as up to 4,000 supporters crammed into Clifton Lane. Rotherham finished bottom and were relegated to National Division 1 after one season.
2001–02 saw Rotherham return to National One having gained experience and develop as a club. Rotherham duly romped to their second National Division One title in three years, losing only two games all season. The success of the league title was quickly dampened by the decision that Rotherham were to be denied promotion to the Premiership as they did not fulfil the ever-changing entry requirements.
Rotherham remained in National Division One for the 2002–03 determined to overcome the previous season's setback, and demonstrated their consistency by once again recording a near perfect season as they once again lost only two games all season, climaxing as Rotherham became champions by beating Worcester away in one of the club's most memorable moments. The Guardian on 13 April 2003 said of the battles with Worcester;
This was the club's third National Division One title in four years, and this time welcomed automatic promotion back to the premiership.
In June 2003 after a 5-month enquiry by Anthony Arlidge QC, Rotherham were acquitted of any wrongdoing in the "Rotherham-Gate" saga, an enquiry which the Premiership were generally consider to have treated with disdain, and ultimately cast serious questions over the conduct of several Premiership Chairmen. The Telegraph reported:
The 2003–04 season saw a return to the Premiership for Rotherham and a change of name as a sponsorship deal with Titan Environmental lead to the adoption of the 'Titans' nickname. The Titans had been sharing Millmoor stadium with Rotherham United Football Club since the start of the 2002–03 season, but Millmoor proved even less of a happy top-flight hunting ground than Clifton Lane as Rotherham struggled to adapt on their return, the Titans being relegated from the top-flight of professional rugby union in 2003–04 after only one season, disappointingly without winning a single match. At the end of that season, Mike Yarlett, the owner who had bankrolled the club's rise through the leagues, withdrew his backing, and extinction appeared to be a distinct possibility. It became clear Yarlett's withdrawal of his backing had come after significant frustration with the RFU at their failure to meet his request to guarantee the possibility of promotion from National Division 1 to the Premiership.
The club was rescued by a local consortium headed by local businessmen Nick Cragg and Martin Jenkinson who had both previously played for the club. Donations from supporters, assurances from Rotherham Council, who valued the club's community work, and the acceptance of savage wage cuts from players ensured that Rotherham could continue in business albeit after a return to their spiritual home ground at Clifton Lane.
In 2004 there was widespread outcry at the RFU's support of a proposed takeover of Rotherham by a South Africa consortia who wanted to move the club to London.
2005–06 saw Andre Bester take control of the club in the double role of chief executive and head coach. With attendances between 920 and 2250, the Titans managed to improve to finish fourth in RFU Championship below an unstoppable Harlequins, who bounced back to the premiership. The club were known as 'Earth Titans' throughout the term of a sponsorship deal with Hellaby-based finance house Earth Money.
The next season 2006–07, the Titans lost the likes of David Strettle, a future England star and Chris Hala'ufia to Harlequins, but brought in players which Bester felt had the potential to help the Titans win National Division One, such as Ireland U21 International Gareth Steenson and Scotland 7s Andrew Turnbull. This saw a resurgence from Rotherham as they made a good start to the RFU Championship campaign. The most notable victory was beating Leeds 22–19 in a very close match which the Titans stole at the death with a penalty from Gareth Steenson. Rotherham finished in second place, five points behind Leeds Tykes.
Rotherham looked to mount a fresh challenge for the 2010–11 season and succeeded in improving on the previous few seasons, finishing seventh and in the promotion playoffs. Ryan Burrows, Juan Pablo Socino & Adam Kettle enjoyed particularly impressive seasons respectively. Andre Bester aimed to secure a squad for the following year prior to the playoffs and the club effectively released several players prior to the end of the season, the ensuing lack of motivation being a contributory factor to the Titans losing every playoff game to finish the season.
As of January 2012 Rotherham were the number one ranked team in Yorkshire, overtaking Leeds Carnegie and the third highest team in the North of England behind only Sale Sharks and the Newcastle Falcons
On 24 January Rotherham signed two scrum halves on trial, Dale Farnham joined from Plymouth Albion; and Danny Matthews who had previously played at Leeds Met University alongside teammates Barney Maddison and Ben Hooper while playing at the university. Subsequently, on 25 January, Rotherham also signed Tom Armes as a dual registered player from Leicester Tigers.
2015–16 saw a dramatic turnaround in events, with the Titans not only finishing outside of the play-offs, but in 10th place. 2016–17 was even worse for the Titans, culminating in an 11th-place finish. In March 2017, head coach Justin Burnell was sacked after a run of one win in fourteen games. He was swiftly replaced with former Yorkshire boss Andy Key. Without the mid-season liquidation of London Welsh, the Titans would have been relegated to National League 1.
Prior to the 2017–18 season, the Titans announced a multi-year kit deal with Scimitar Sportswear. Rotherham would finish the 2017–18 season bottom of the Championship, with the club relegated to National League 1. This will see Rotherham playing third tier rugby for the first time since the 1995–96 season.
Unusually the next two rivals weren't local, both Bedford Blues and Worcester Warriors were promotion rivals to Rotherham and had a number of epic games between 1999 and 2002. During this period Rotherham were regular victors over both of these teams including against Bedford in a play off to gain promotion to the Premiership, and in a key game against Worcester Warriors which all but sealed promotion to the Premiership for the second time.
The third period of rivalry pitted Rotherham against local rivals Leeds Tykes and then Doncaster Knights.
Rotherham Titans moved to Clifton Lane in the late 1930s and have played every league season at Clifton Lane apart from the 2003–04 Premiership season during Rotherham's second stint as they instead shared Millmoor stadium with Rotherham United Football Club to satisfy promotion criteria. Rotherham returned to Clifton Lane the following year.
The Titans still need to resolve issues surrounding facilities. They have been turned down for promotion before due to this, and require better facilities if they are to be promoted. As aforementioned The Titans have shared Millmoor stadium with Rotherham United Football Club in the past. Rotherham United Football Club’s Chairman, Dennis Coleman, had mentioned the possibility of sharing the newly constructed New York Stadium. However the Titans opted out of the use of this stadium as they pursued alternative facilities.
In 2010–11 season, the ground was sponsored by Stafforce recruitment and is sometimes quoted as being called the "Stafforce Stadium".
In 2011 Rotherham Titans spent several months seeking an agreement with the owners of Millmoor CF Booth Ltd to use the unused stadium as their home ground. After much speculation it was announced in December 2011 that the Titans would remain at Clifton Lane for the foreseeable future due to the deal falling through.
Instrumental in the foundation's set up was Brian Chapple, who later went on to be the Community Foundation at Rotherham United. While the foundation was set up to support the community, the value added by the foundation was one of the main reasons that Rotherham Council helped save the Titans after financial meltdown in 2003.
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A further survey carried out in 2023 concluded that Carl Banks was voted the single greatest every player to grace Clifton Lane.
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Previous sponsors include:
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