National Two South

Taunton Titans 14, Cinderford 33

TAUNTON Titans slipped to their fourth defeat in five matches as their National Two South promotion hopes received another dent.

Second-placed Cinderford ran out comfortable winners at the Commsplus Stadium, with Taunton's late rally proving far too little, too late.

The tone was set in just the third minute as the visitors took the lead through a try from captain George Porter and, though the conversion was missed, Liam Hemming made no such mistake after Alex Frame went over in the corner shortly afterwards as Cinderford established an early 12-0 advantage.

Taunton passed up the chance to get themselves on the board when a penalty went wide, and the visitors made them pay with two quickfire tries to secure their bonus point just after half hour mark.

A shell-shocked home side went into the break 26-0 down and started the second period on the front foot without any points to show for their efforts.

Cinderford then put the game to bed on the hour when Porter went over for his second, converted by Hemming, to leave the hosts playing for pride.

They restored some with two late scores, courtesy of Andrew Hamilton and Sam Brown, and both were converted by Toby East to restore a hint of respectability to the scoreline.

The result was disappointing for the Titans, however, who slip further behind the top two of Cinderford and Chinnor - the all-conquering start to the season feels a long time ago.

Taunton Titans: Connor Baker, Chris Francis, Isaac Dalton, Andy England, Blake Lugg, Brett Harvey, Ratu Vakalutukali, Sam Prior; Connor Banks, Lewis Webb, Jack Claydon, Toby East, Nick Mason, Aron Struminski, Sam Brown.

Replacements: Andrew Hamilton, Ben Oliphant-Thompson, Paul Davis, James Kenny, Freddie Fraser.