TAUNTON Titans head coach Tony Yapp was delighted to see his team 'beat the bogeymen', as Henley Hawks were seen off 25-17 at the Towergate Stadium on Saturday.

The Titans led 15-0 at half-time, only for the visitors to surge into a 17-15 lead.

Undeterred, the home side hit back and Isaac Dalton's second try of the day helped secure victory against a team who had won in Taunton on their previous two visits.

READ MORE: Taunton Titans 25-17 Henley Hawks as it happened

Yapp said afterwards: "If you look at Henley's results of late, they've been a bit of a bogey team for us – I think they ended our winning run last season, and possibly the year before as well.

"They did the double over us last season, so it is nice to get one over on them.

"But for us it was also very much about our performance.

"Every week is a different challenge – Bournemouth were an unknown, then the Redruth derby game, then the first away game [at Worthing], and finally a home game against a team who will be in the top four I've no doubt.

"Last year our biggest issue was against teams in the top four or five, so to get the first one under our belt is great, and it's great in terms of our momentum going forward as well."

It was a topsy-turvy encounter, with the Titans on top form in the first half, only to see their lead fizzle out under Henley pressure following the interval.

Yapp said: "Credit goes to all the boys today, all those who came off the bench, and Oskar Kolowski who only came over from the 2nd XV 20 minutes before kick-off because Jack Arnott tweaked his groin.

"I'm really proud of the boys' effort and their willingness to keep going, especially when the momentum shifted and they went ahead.

"Lewis Webb went off with a head clash just before that [Henley comeback], and there was a couple of little decisions which went against us and gave them field position and momentum.

"That made it difficult and Henley are a good side – they're not going to roll over, and we knew they would come out strong [after half-time].

"But the message, even when we went behind, was always to just keep doing what we were doing, and to be patient because an opportunity will come.

"We have to trust the boys to do that, not to panic and try to force something.

"We got the ball back and controlled the last 15 minutes really well.

"We got our score, we managed to exit well from the kick-off and finished with a lot of pressure which could have resulted in a [bonus point] try but as it was it was a win for us, and we denied them a losing bonus point as well, which is great."

There would be no prizes for guessing what area of the game would attract particular attention in training this week, with both side's lineouts struggling – in the first half in particular.

Yapp added: "I thought our lineout was excellent on their ball... I think we won more ball on theirs than our own!

"Henley will have done their analysis and they'll have been working all week on how to deny us playing from lineouts and certain areas.

"It didn't quite fire for us today, and it's obviously something we'll look at a lot this week to make sure we get it right for next week, because it was our Achilles' heel a little bit in terms of losing momentum at key times."

Next Saturday brings a trip to Tonbridge Juddians, a match which Yapp expects to pose another tricky test for his side.

"It doesn't get any easier, with Tonbridge away, but we can recover well this week and prepare for that," he said.

"We'll go up there with the underdog tag I think, but we'll get stuck in and see what happens.

"We're under no illusions, it's going to be really tough, but I think whoever wins the league this year will lose three, four or five games, and it does not get any tougher than Tonbridge away.

"We'll prepare well, give it our best shot, and if we can get something out of next week then it will be game on."