The hosts were close to taking an early lead as Tom Vooght just about dotted down a grubber kick under pressure, but the Berkshire men came into the contest and camped on their opponents’ line.

Their territorial dominance eventually told as Rowan Grundy’s delightful chip was collected by centre colleague Solodrau Radianirova to dive under the posts, Fraser Honey adding the extras.

With an advantage played and a series of infringements committed by the hosts, second row Curran Maguire was sin-binned following the score, and the visitors could then have extended their lead when butchering a two-on-one overlap down the left.

This error was capitalised on as Rotherham got off the mark with a Lloyd Hayes penalty, the league’s top point-scorer then trimming the gap to a solitary point with the final kick of the opening 40 minutes, Rams penalised at the breakdown.

Titans came flying out of the blocks after the interval, and hit the front for the first time as fly-half Rob Povey sliced through in midfield, Hayes on target to push his side 13-7 in front.

Rams were now under the cosh and were grateful for a knock-on denying their hosts a second try as the rain came down more and more heavily.

However, the introduction of props Paddy Harris and the indefatigable James Baker – making his 425th appearance – put the hosts’ scrum under pressure, a penalty on five-metres kicked to the corner before Rams finally got their maul going for James McRae to touch down.

A decent Honey nudge edged the away side a point ahead, but another costly error saw Rams spill a ball before playing it, Hayes bisecting the uprights for 16-14.

And disaster struck shortly afterwards as Titans forced a five-metre scrum, the ball going loose before it was switched left for Aidan Shortall to dive over.

Hayes missed for the first time to leave it as a one-score game, but try as they might, Rams were met with a heroic home wall as a series of attacks inside the 22 floundered.

They were given one last chance as the clock ticked into the red, but were unable to secure their own line-out before influential scrum-half JB Bruzulier ran the ball into touch to send the home faithful home happy.

Rams will look to bounce back in a top-of-the-table home clash with Richmond under the Friday Night Lights (December 6). For tickets, click here