Polished Wood outshines Welsh

London Welsh 22 Rotherham 49

First versus fifth should have the ingredients of a hard, bruising encounter that determines a hierarchy at the top of the table, but it is an anomaly of National League One rugby that this was a contest between the haves and have-nots, or rather the "wannabes" and the "quietly contents".

The solitary promotion spot is the holy grail for top-of-the-table Rotherham and after the politicking that denied them Premiership rugby this season, they are determined to ensure they play it next time around.

"It's vital for the club really," admitted their player/coach Mike Schmid. "There's a lot of money gone into us this season and we need to get promoted or else what are we doing? We should have gone up last year but now we must do it again for the future of the club. Everyone wants top rugby – fans, players, everyone, and that is what we are working so hard to get."

If they continue the form of this first half they will positively demand it as they took a 21-0 lead inside 14 minutes. Joe Ewens and Alfie Tooala scored the first two after good loose play by the forwards and a midfield break by Mike Umaga but the third was crafted by the quick thinking and feet of scrum-half Charlie Harrison. His pace and angle of run down the blind side from a scrum on the half-way line negated the flanker, leaving a simple inside pass to Michael Wood for the easiest of scores under the posts.

It looked ominous and thoroughly professional, but that is exactly what they are. London Welsh are not, not completely anyway and it showed. They never stopped competing, though, and scores by Bruno Green and Lee Davies in the 35th and 54th minutes respectively narrowed the deficit to 13 points. If Richard Mahony had landed a couple of kicks then Welsh could have glimpsed a victory but he missed and Rotherham regained the composure that had deserted them with the substitutions of Umaga and Tooala.

Wood completed his hat-trick, Ramiro Pez side-stepped his way to the posts and Florent Rossigneux rumbled over for Welsh but in mitigation, their ambition is less lofty.

"We want to be the best semi-pro side in the land, because at the moment we can't justify, economically, being fully professional," explained club chairman David Hammond. "We took that decision because three or four clubs would be full-time and competing for the one promotion place so why quadruple our wage bill to pursue a lottery," he continued. "We don't want a sugar daddy to bankroll us because they can leave or die, so the board of directors make sensible decisions for the club. In the future we want to play elite rugby and one day we will press the button but certain things need to be sorted before that."

One of those is the contentious rule forcing the promoted club to own or have prima facie use of their ground. It was Rotherham's inability to prove this that denied them in May.

"I feel that First Division Rugby is disadvantaged by the rules," explained Hammond, incidentally the chairman of FDR. "Wasps can simply ground-swap while our clubs need to prove prima facie use. It is certainly an issue that needs to be resolved before we pursue higher rugby because our present ground would not qualify."

Rotherham are still hoping theirs will.

London Welsh: L Davies; B Green, John, P Farmer; R Greenslade-Jones; R Mahony (R Catt, 79), T Lewsey; S Phillips, G Botterman (C Ritchie, 68), L Ward (C Cano, 51), C Eagle (T Copsey, 71), A Johnson, R Griffith (D Ramsey, 68), P Mansfield (F Rossigneux, 68), M Fitzgerald (capt).

Rotherham: P Massey; J Craig, J Ewens, M Umaga (M Oliver, 53), M Wood; R Pez, C Harrison (J Raulini, 46); N Lloyd, C Johnson (capt) (H Toews, 65), S Bunting, D Cook, G Kenworthy, L Greef, R Earnshaw, A Tooala (N Spence, 56).

Referee: Tim Miller (RFU)