National 2 South

Taunton Titans 50, Bury St Edmunds 0

ON a bitterly cold day, Taunton Titans ran out convincing winners against Bury St Edmunds and will be more pleased with an excellent defensive effort to keep the visitors from scoring, writes Keith Brooking.

Taunton opened their account two minutes in when winger Aron Struminski made a break down the wing before Sam Prior made a considerable dent in the defence.

With the defence retreating, captain Nick Mason ran straight and hard and broke free to run in the try.

The forwards then got in on the act with two tries from close range.

Both of these were scored by back rowers; first Jarrard Hayler went over from close range after Ollie Rice and Sam Prior disrupted the defence and the second from Dan Lee was a carbon copy of the first with his pack helping him over the line.

In difficult kicking conditions, Gary Kingdom converted both but failed when, after an excellent defensive effort on their own line, Mason collected Lewis Webb's clearance just outside his own 22 and had the pace to run the length of the pitch for his second of the afternoon.

Winger Noah Sixton then scored his first try for the Titans, as Webb broke before with a Matt Dawson-esque dummy confused the last defenders- knowing he didn’t have the pace to finish, Webb passed inside for Sixton to run in.

Kingdom kicked the extras but missed again before the end of the half as the forwards rumbled over once more with prop Connor Baker scoring and making the half time score 36–0.

The temperature dropped and the rain started and not a lot happened in the second half until a tackle on the Bury 22 by Sam Williams dislodged the ball for Ratu Vakalutukali to scoop up and power over to score.

The Titans finished off the day with the forwards driving towards the line and Sam Prior using his considerable weight advantage to cross, with Kingdom kicking the conversion on the final whistle to bring up 50 points.

County Stores man of the match: Lewis Webb

Taunton Titans: Connor Baker, Alex Spurdle, Isaac Dalton, Stu Persey, Barrie-John Chapman, Dan Lee, Jarrard Hayler, Sam Prior; Lewis Webb, Toby East, Aron Struminski, Nick Mason (c), Ollie Rice, Noah Sixton, Gary Kingdom 

Replacements: Sam Williams, Alfie Petch, Milo Reynolds, Ratu Vakalutukali, Jacob Nash