National 2S

Taunton Titans 20, Bishops Stortford 15

TAUNTON Titans managed to squeeze pass Bishops Stortford in a very tense, stop-start, yet entertaining game at Hyde Park where the lead changed five times, writes Keith Brooking.

The Titans were first on the scoreboard with a penalty kicked by full-back Gary Kingdom before Bishops score two tries in three minutes.

The first was started deep in their own half where a couple of missed tackles allowed Stortford to make their way up into the Titans' 22 where an excellent inside ball to the onrushing Sam Winter allowed him to go in under the posts.

This was converted by full-back Pier Dotta.

Straight from the kick-off another missed tackle allowed Bishops to get their second when centre Dom Morris dived over after several quick phases.

The conversion was missed but the visitors now had a nine-point lead.

The play moved from end to end with both teams seeming to spill the greasy ball in vital areas.

The hosts got themselves back into the game when winger Jack Claydon went over after some great work in a narrow channel to score.

Kingdom added the conversion and then added a penalty on the stroke of half- time to send the Titans in at the break with a one-point advantage, 13-12.

Bishops started the second half well claiming the lead once more with a penalty kicked by Dotta.

The Titans were then close to pressing the self-destruct button with two yellow cards - the first to Charlie Walker-Blair for hands in the ruck and the second to Jack Claydon who slipped when challenging for a high ball and took out his opposite number.

However, the 13 men of the Titans dug deep, defended well and managed to keep the ball for long periods to see out the sin bins without conceding a point.

When the Titans were back to their full complement a fine break by Paul Davis, who timed his pass to perfection, sent in Claydon who was full of running after his 10-minute rest to score his second try of the game. Kingdom once again added the extras.

With 10 minutes of the game still to go it was still nip-and-tuck but the home scrum had the advantage and shunted the visitors off their own ball several times to see the game out and claim a hard earned win.

The Titans were once again not at their best with too many dropped balls in the greasy conditions, too many wrong options and some poor defence.

Even with these uncharacteristic errors they still managed the win against one of the top sides in the division.

The forwards were dominant in all departments but the team will have to improve if they want to reclaim the top of the league place that they have now lost to Cambridge.

Taunton Titans - 15 Kingdom, 14 Strong, 13 Mason, 12 Tichias (Capt), 11 J Claydon, 10 East, 9 Webb, 8 Prior (Davis 36), 7 Walker-Blair, 6 Harvey, 5 Hales, 4 Persey (Frost 60), 3 Caulfield, 2 Gatford, 1 Woolmore Reps not used; A Spurdle, T Claydon, O Massey-Birch