National 2 South
Taunton Titans 49, Old Redcliffians 17

TAUNTON Titans shrugged off a three-point half-time deficit to claim a convincing victory at home to Old Redcliffians on Saturday, their 49-17 win ending a run of three straight losses.

Those defeats - to Barnes, Rams and Tonbridge Juddians - had seen the Titans slide down the National 2 South table, and the home faithful were given a rude awakening when an early converted try from Scott Coster put Old Reds 7-0 up at the Commsplus Stadium.

But the hosts hit back immediately, hooker Chris Francis going over from their first attack, and Gary Kingdom converted to level the scoreline.

Former Exeter Chiefs and Leicester Tigers man Julian Salvi claimed a second converted try for the Titans, but the visitors replied in kind, and a penalty put them 17-14 ahead at half time.

Those were to be the last points scored by Old Reds, as the Titans made several changes early in the second half and went on to completely dominate proceedings.

Francis went over for his second converted try of the afternoon, before scrum-half Jacob Nash secured the bonus-point score, and Kingdom added the extras to make it 28-17.

And the tries kept coming, as centre Ollie Rice and replacement Sam Brown stretched the hosts' lead, Kingdom converting both.

The icing on the cake was a final score from Isaac Dalton, Kingdom maintaining his 100 per cent conversion record to make the final score 49-17.

Next Saturday sees the Titans travel up to M5 to take on Dings Crusaders, with Taunton currently fourth in the table and Dings eighth.

Taunton Titans: Connor Baker, Chris Francis, Sonny Haines, Stu Persey, Dan Ogden, Ben Oliphant-Thompson, Julian Salvi, Sam Prior; Jacob Nash, Lewis Webb, Freddie Fraser, Ollie Rice, Noah Sixton, Aron Struminski, Gary Kingdom. Replacements: Alex Spurdle, Isaac Dalton, Corry Teague, Charlie Williams, Sam Brown.