National Two South

Taunton Titans 50 Southend Saxons 7

TAUNTON Titans proved too strong for Southend Saxons, running in eight tries in the process - but they didn’t have it all their own way, writes Keith Brooking. 

After five minutes, the Saxons opened the scoring with a well worked try scored by scrum-half Jack Daly after a great break in midfield, which was converted by Brad Burr to give them a 7-0 lead. 

The visitors kept Taunton under pressure for the next 10 minutes, but the Titans earned a penalty and kicked to the corner and the resulting maul led to a try for number eight Sam Prior. 

Then five minutes later, in a carbon copy of his first try, but on the other side of the pitch, Prior went over for his second. 

Full-back Gary Kingdom kicked the conversion to give the Titans the lead 12-7. 

The Titans started to take control of the game and managed a third try just before half time, through winger Nick Mason. 

After the forwards had taken the ball close to the try line, the ball was passed out Lewis Webb chose the right runner and sent Mason over untouched, with Kingdom adding the extras to make it 19-7 at the interval.

The start of the second half saw the Saxons come out all guns blazing and the visitors were camped in the Titans half - but against some strong defending, couldn’t get the next score. 

That fell to Titans hooker Jon Gatford, who took a pop pass around the corner for the bonus point try. 

Titans kept the pace of the game high and were rewarded with a second try for Mason. 

A long kick from Southend was returned by Sam Prior, before Brown flicked the ball out the back for Mason to score in the corner. 

After a rare try for club captain Jamie Fleming, who was the beneficiary of a forward driving maul, there was a try for man of the match scrum half Oli Claxton, who controlled the game well throughout. 

From a long kick from Kingdom, Dan Frost hit a great line before offloading to Claxton who dived over under the posts. 

The last try of the game and probably the best, was a second for crowd favourite Jon Gatford. 

With Nick Mason chipping over the defence and collecting his own kick, he then stepped the covering defender before taking the ball to the Saxons 22 meter line.

After a quick ruck, the ball was sent out to Lewis Webb who drew in the defence to pop the ball back inside to Gatford, who ran it in. 

With three of those tries converted by Kingdom, it brought the half century up for the Titans for the first time this season.

Taunton Titans: Kingdom (Capt), Mason, Brown, East (Fraser 17), Struminski (Fleming 48), Webb, Claxton, Prior (Persey 68), Vakalutukali (Gatford 69), Davis, Hales (Chase 74), Persey (Harvey 55), Caulfield, Gatford (Frost 60), Chase (Woolmore 51)