TAUNTON Titans' performance in Saturday's victory over National 2 South leaders Tonbridge Juddians was "as good as I've seen from a Titans team", according to head coach Tony Yapp.

Two tries from Isaac Dalton and one from Alex Spurdle, combined with a Gary Kingdom penalty, saw the Titans emerge 20-5 victors in front of a vocal Hyde Park crowd who were able to celebrate Taunton's first ever victory over Tonbridge.

The result has halved the points deficit between the two sides to four and puts Yapp's third-placed side in the thick of the promotion chase.

“The main thing was to get a win but to deny them a point is massive," Yapp said.

“It wasn’t do or die but if we’d have lost today it would have been very difficult to get ourselves back in.

“The manner in which we’ve won today is a credit to the boys and a reminder of what we are capable of.

“Today was as good a performance as I’ve seen from us.

“Our field position was excellent, our defence was unbelievable and our forward pack were as good as I’ve ever seen.

“Everyone stepped up and we didn’t carry anyone today. Everyone put their body on the line."

READ MORE: Match report - Titans defeat league leaders

Yapp admitted the performance and result in the reverse fixture, which saw Taunton beaten 68-31, gave his side that bit of extra motivation going into the rematch.

“We were disappointed with how it went up there and that still resonated with us - we felt we had a score to settle," he said.

“We were very keen to give a good account of ourselves.

"We said beforehand that, win or lose, we were just going to get properly stuck in and see what came of it.

“The biggest thing today was our defence. We have been criticised for our defence in the past – it’s not always lack of effort, we are playing against good teams with a lot of ex-professional players.

“If you look at our team, there are not many – only three or four – who have come down from above and played at a higher level. That’s a small number compared to other teams."

Saturday's win also kept Taunton's unbeaten home record intact, with Yapp paying tribute to those in the stands who acted as the 16th man.

“Keeping our home run going is massive, as is the manner in which we did it," he said.

"We had a big crowd in today, lots of support and noise coming out of the stands, which is great.

“They are a good side with some very good players. It wasn’t end to end, we had to work hard for our scores and grind it out.

“I was disappointed we didn’t get the bonus point – we chucked everything at it at the end - but I’ll certainly take the four."

As for what is to come, the Titans coach is hoping his side can do all they can to keep themselves in the race for the top two.

“Hopefully this will be a massive confidence booster and set us up nicely going forward," he said.

“It keeps us in the race. Henley and Tonbridge have to play against each other – obviously we have to look after our own house but it gives us an opportunity to be right in the mix.

"It also shows other teams that these sides are vulnerable.

“Other sides will look at it and think ‘Taunton have done it, why can’t we’. They [Tonbridge] are not invincible, though they are a very good team."

As for Dalton, whose brace took his try tally to 14 for the season and stretched his lead as the club's top scorer, Yapp said: "You can’t stop him at the moment.

"It’s the tighthead position – Sonny Haines went in there for 25 minutes last weekend and scored twice!

"All credit to Isaac – if you are up against him at the moment you have to mark him tight or he’ll find his way over."