LAST Saturday saw Taunton Titans reach the half way stage of the season and aside from a couple of poor results they can be quite satisfied with their progress so far, especially with the injuries they have had since September, writes Keith Brooking.

Currently the Titans sit in fourth place, just eight points behind the leaders Chinnor.

Hopefully those couple of results won’t come back to haunt them at the end of the season, but that's the trouble with sport – the opposition are always trying to beat you.

This Saturday the game will be just as intense and the result just as important to both teams, and perhaps more so for the Titans' opposition Exmouth.

Titans' hosts this weekend sit at the bottom of the league after 15 games and would love nothing more than to start the second half of the season with a bang, and go into the festive break closing the gap on those above.

In recent weeks Exmouth have seen the teams around them pick up some noticeable wins, with London Irish beating Redruth and Barnstaple beating Henley last weekend, which move them 13 and 12 points respectively ahead of Exmouth.

All three of these teams were promoted last season and it seems that Exmouth have struggled the most so far out of the three, only picking up the one win when they beat Barnstaple at home.

So picking up a second home victory this weekend, against their nearest geographical neighbours, will certainly give the Cockle supporters, players and coaches great Christmas cheer.

One of the Titans players who will be hoping to spoil the Exmouth Christmas party is former Cockle and last week’s Titans try scorer Richard Bright.

‘Brighty’ moved to Taunton in the summer and has enjoyed 10 appearances for the Titans, scoring five tries.

The Titans coaches will be hoping to get some more players back fit for this weekend and will be looking forward to the New Year, when hopefully they will see some more of the long-term injuries return to training and the team sheet.