Drotske and Horak break Rotherham resistance

The answer to the burning question: yes, they probably are good enough to live with the Premiership big boys – or rather, they will be, assuming they win National League One for the umpteenth time and spend a few bob in the right places.

Rotherham, accustomed to scoring at will, ran into one of the more solid defences in the club game yesterday afternoon and duly found themselves between a rock and a hard place. But they contributed hugely to a very decent Powergen Cup quarter-final, and can look ahead to the next few months with undiluted enthusiasm.

Mike Schmid, as inspirational a figure as any in English rugby, suspected that London Irish would ask the big questions in the opening stages. "If we can get to 20 minutes with some purchase on the game, we'll be competitive," Rotherham's player-coach had pronounced during the build-up to the tie. The Exiles certainly hit the ground running, but Schmid ended up wrong. The real damage was done in the second quarter, when Naka Drotske and Michael Horak crossed for tries within six minutes of each other.

Drotske, that gnarled old Springbok from the Free State, is among the most dependable hookers in the Premiership, and his intelligent trundle round the short side of a ruck on 30 minutes gave the home side full and unexpected value from an attack that looked dead when Hentie Martens was buried by the Rotherham front row as he attempted to plot a subterranean route to the line.

Horak's try was more questionable: Paul Sackey's inside pass to Drotske looked forward, and the Yorkshiremen also seemed perfectly justified in claiming that the scorer was guilty of failing to release in the tackle before rolling over the whitewash.

Still, Rotherham were far from outclassed. Their back row – Schmid, Leon Greeff and the tireless Neil Spence – lost nothing in comparison to Paul Gustard, Declan Danaher and Chris Sheasby, while Jacob Rauluni, the Fijian international scrum-half, looked every inch a world-class concern.

Together with Ramiro Pez, who may well play a full Six Nations hand for Italy now that Diego Dominguez is in another of his strops, Rauluni kept his colleagues on the front foot despite the pressure applied at the breakdown by a highly-combative Exiles pack.

They brought some tough hombres down the M1 into the bargain. When Gustard, nobody's idea of a pushover, went high on Mike Umaga early in the second half, the Samoan reduced him to dust. Gustard should have known better. During the 1995 World Cup, Umaga laid waste to the entire South African team in an explosive, not to say blood-curdling, quarter-final in Johannesburg. When you have mixed it with the likes of Os du Randt, Ruben Kruger and Francois Pienaar and lived to tell the tale, an uncapped English flanker hunting alone does not hold too many terrors.

Twelve points adrift at the break, Rotherham's remarkable application in defence forced a scoreless 20 minutes after the interval. That fallow period should have been broken by Pez, but Rotherham declined a straightforward penalty shot and then saw their outside-half miss with a more awkward kick a few minutes later. In the end, it was Martens who broke through, dummying from close range to finish at the sticks. Sadly, Spence was guilty of buying the scrum-half's show-and-go routine. His phenomenal work-rate deserved better.

As did his team, who were pretty much on their knees come the final few minutes. They could certainly have done without Sackey's soft score in the right corner: Nick Kennedy's line-out take and Kieron Dawson's pass were a free ticket to the line for one of England's quickest wings. Happily, they ended on a high when Matt Oliver escaped down the left wing for a late consolation try. No one, not even the most myopic exiled Irishman, begrudged the visitors their moment.

London Irish: Tries Drotske, Horak, Martens, Sackey; Conversions Everitt 2; Penalty Everitt; Drop goal Everitt. Rotherham: Try Oliver; Penalties Pez 2.

London Irish: M Mapletoft; P Sackey, N Burrows, B Venter (G Appleford, 64), M Horak; B Everitt, H Martens (K Barrett, 74); M Worsley (N Hatley, h-t), N Drotske (R Kirke, 46), S Halford (R Hardwick, 46), R Casey (G Delaney, 53), N Kennedy, P Gustard (capt), D Danaher (K Dawson, 56), C Sheasby.

Rotherham: J Benson; S Dixon, M Oliver, M Umaga (J Cannon, 48), M Wood (J Ewens, 37); R Pez, J Rauluni (C Harrison, 61); N Lloyd (A Gravil, 67), H Toews, C Noon, D Cook, G Kenworthy (M Giacheri, 53), L Greeff (G Remnant, 61), N Spence, M Schmid (capt).

Referee: A Spreadbury (Somerset).

POWERGEN CUP SEMI-FINAL DRAW

London Irish v Northampton
Leicester v Gloucester

Ties to be played over weekend of 1-2 March