National 2S

Taunton Titans 47, Old Elthamians 16

TAUNTON Titans started the season with a bang with an emphatic win over Old Elthamians - but they didn’t have it all their own way with OEs leading for the first 25 minutes, writes Keith Brooking.

In near-perfect conditions, it was OEs who kicked off the season with the first score of the game after six minutes through a penalty through fly-half Tom White.

The Titans had kept possession well for the first five minutes but when they lost possession and OEs got into the opposition half, Titans gave away the penalty.

This was the story for the first quarter of the game with the Titans seemingly trying too hard to play rugby and score tries when perhaps patience was the order of the day.

OEs added a further penalty through White before the Titans got on the scoreboard with two penalties through the trusted boot of full-back Gary Kingdom to tie the scores at 6-6.

The two kickers then traded a penalties taking it to 9-9 before the first try of the season was scored by centre Mathew Tichias after a deft offload by Toby East.

Kingdom added the extras to give the Titans the lead on the stroke of half-time, 16-9.

If the first half was a close guarded affair with defences winning the day, the second half was all Titans.

After six minutes, flanker Eughan Grace went over for a try on his debut after several pick-and-goes close to the OEs’ line. This was followed by a double for winger Jack ‘Weapon’ Claydon who showed good strength and pace for both.

Not wanting to miss out on the tries, fellow wing Aron Struminski went under the posts after showing his pace and rounding the opposition. With Kingdom adding two conversions, the Titans had opened up a comfortable lead 40-9 in a 15-minute period.

The game still had time for Claydon to score his hat-trick. With his opposite number taking the ball into contact, Claydon tackled and ripped the ball in one movement and raced away from just inside his own half to score under the post for Kingdom to add the simple conversion.

The last score of the day went to OEs when winger Craig Dowsett when through the middle and White adding the extras to make the final score 47-16.

Taunton Titans; 15 G Kingdom, 14 A Struminski, 13 T Popham (Capt) (F Fraser 64), 12 M Tichias, 11 J Claydon, 10 T East, 9 L Webb (O Claxton 59), 8 S Prior (E Grace 31, J Caulfield77), 7 D Frost (L Webb 72), 6 B Chapman (S Prior 63), 5 B Turner, 4 B Harvey, 3 J Caulfield (J Owlett 59), 2 J Gatford (P Davis 47) , 1 J Woolmore.

Tries: Tichias 38, Grace 46, Claydon 51, 54, 71, Stuminski 58

Conversion: Kingdom 39, 52, 58, 72

Penalty: Kingdom 22, 25, 30

Yellow Card: Woolmore 73 HT: 16 - 9 Referee: Adam Leale Attendance: 350