National League 2 South
Taunton Titans 30, Bury St Edmund’s 26

THIS was a great game of rugby for the neutral spectator with the lead changing six times but, for any of the supporters of either team, it was an edge-of-the-seat game that went to literally the last play of the game.

The game was physical and fast with some big collisions but both teams played it in the right spirit.

The Titans were the first on the scoreboard with a penalty through Gary Kingdom.

Bury St Edmunds then equalised straight from the kick-off with a penalty through full back Scott Lyle, who kicked everything that was put in front of him.

Ten minutes later, the first try of the game was scored by home captain, centre Tom Popham, with Kingdom kicking the extras to make the score 10-3.

Lyle then kicked another penalty straight from the kick-off to close the gap.

The game then went end-to-end with both teams putting in some big defensive hits with Bury St Edmunds wining the breakdown area and causing the home side to play off slow ball.

Just before the half-time whistle, Bury St Edmunds were rewarded for their endeavours and went over for their first try of the game through back row Emyr Williams, converted by Lyle to take the half time lead 13-10.

The game was poised for a great second half and the teams didn’t disappoint with possibly the discipline of the visitors the telling factor when Bury had a yellow card for centre Sterling and a red for Williams.

Kingdom kicked the penalty from the red card, with Lyle matching him once more to make the score 13-19 with just over 25 minutes to go.

Home debutant Oli Graham then went over a try in the corner to close the gap to a point before the Titans’ man advantage took its toll when the referee awarded a penalty try after several infringements near Bury’s line.

Kingdom added the conversion before Bury went nearly the length of the field working the phases to score in the left corner.

Lyle converted from the touchline to give the visitors a single point lead with four minutes to go.

From the kick-off, the Titans managed to claim a penalty which they kicked to the corner.

After several infringements and attempts to drive the visitors over the line, the ball was fed out for Kingdom to crash over to claim the winning score.

Titans head coach Tony Yapp said after the game: “We were probably quite fortunate to come away from this game with five points.

“Going behind by a point with four minutes to go, the game could quite easily have gone the other way and, to be fair it wasn’t anything that Bury didn’t deserve.

“But, credit to the boys, they stuck in and managed to get the ball back and, after a couple of penalties, managed to get over.

“In terms of the game itself, we knew what Bury would bring to the game and they managed to disrupt us too easily in the first half, which is something we need to work on.”

Referee: Ben Russell
Attendance: 525
Taunton Titans; Kingdom, Struminski, Fraser, Popham (Capt), Bright, Landray (Graham 40), Webb, Claydon (Caulfield 59), Gatford (Frost 48), Owlett, Persey, Lugg (Gibbs 45), Gibbs (Lawday 40), Vakalutukali, Prior (Newsam 69)