National 2 South
Broadstreet 21, Taunton Titans 26

TAUNTON finished the season with five points away from home but were pushed all the way by already relegated Broadstreet, writes Keith Brooking.

The Titans can take several positives from the game, as two players made their starting debuts and a third came off the bench to help their side break through the 100-point mark for the season.

It was the home side who started the brightest, and a try-saving tackle from debutant Gerant Lewis settled the Titans' nerves.

The visitors started to make inroads into the Broadstreet defence, and Ollie Rice broke the deadlock by bursting through the tackle to score under the posts on 22 minutes.

Gary Kingdom added the simple conversion to give the Titans a seven-point lead.

Straight from the kickoff Broadstreet went on the attack, putting the Titans under pressure and scoring under the posts through James Moreton to level the scores in the 26th minute.

Both teams had their chances to take the lead, but it was Taunton who got it, as Paul Davis powered his way through the tackles to score under the posts eight minutes before the break.

Kingdom added the extras and made the half-time score 14-7.

With a couple of enforced changes at the interval for the Titans, it took them a while to settle back down into their rhythm, and Broadstreet levelled the scores once again with a penalty try 15 minutes into the half.

Back came Taunton once again, as scrum-half Lewis Webb managed to squeeze through a gap to score out wide on the hour mark.

This gave the visitors the lead once again, but the home side wanted to go out of the division with a bang and hit straight back with a third converted try, this time from Ed Boxall, to lead for the first time in the game with 15 minutes to go.

Taunton fluffed their lines a couple of times close to the line, but there was no panic and even a kick for the posts was turned down to look for the bonus-point try.

With time running out and with the last throw of the dice, it was the Titans' players' player of the season Rice who used his pace to ghost around the defence to score.

Kingdom converted on the final whistle, giving the Titans a 26-21 victory.

Taunton Titans: Kingdom, Lewis, Rice, Fraser, Paul, Webb, Banks (Prior 40), Francis, Hamilton (Hooper 56), Tribble (Petch 42-56), Harvey, England (Persey 56), Davis, Fleming (c) (Samways 40), Oliphant-Thompson.