page_title: Rotherham Titans
section_title: 2000–2003
hierarchical_section_title: Rotherham Titans / History / 2000–2003
caption_attribution_description: English: Mike Umaga in 2004 after playing for Rotherham
context_page_description: Rotherham Rugby Union Football Club, or Rotherham Titans is a professional rugby union team from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, currently playing in the third tier of the English rugby union league system, following their relegation from the RFU Championship at the end of the 2017-18 season.
  Rotherham is one of the most successful clubs in English rugby history, having 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.
  Rotherham is now consistently a top 20 club in English rugby, with a reputation for being a breeding ground for developing talented players, including those who are overlooked by other top clubs such as David Strettle, Hendre Fourie and Erik Lund.
context_section_description: For 2000–01 Rotherham won promotion to become Yorkshire's first ever representative in the top tier of English rugby. The Independent said of Rotherham entry to the premiership:
  There will be a culture shock awaiting rugby union's elite clubs when they arrive in Rotherham this season, especially in the clubhouse which resonates with rugby virtues from a bygone era.... Rotherham do not recognise celebrity; they are without artifice or pretension.
   
  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. Disappointingly 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;
  For years, it seems, they've been the Celtic and Rangers of their division, few other matches seeming to matter but the pair's annual pitched battles. But the big difference is that the Scottish football giants don't go up, or down. Rotherham have now all but ensured their escape from English rugby's first division with this professional-looking win, built on organisation, strong defence and no important errors
  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:
  Rotherham have been the focus of Arlidge's considerable scrutiny. They were the only entity involved in this whole, drawn-out matter, to give him full cooperation.... "Mr Barwell was not prepared to put his mouth where his convictions lay," Arlidge writes......  Arlidge notes that "cooperation from Premier Rugby has been most disappointing and that has made my task more difficult".
  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 Jenkin
caption: Mike Umaga in 2004, one of Rotherhams iconic players
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