Taunton RFC 53 - 5 Camborne

After two very tough, low scoring, away wins at Barnstaple and Clevedon in diabolical weather, Taunton were delighted to return to a firm surface and sunshine at Hyde Park.

They celebrated in style with nine tries and were out of sight by half time. But, credit to the Cornish visitors, Camborne refused to throw in the towel and managed a consolation try in stoppage time.

But it was long since a lost cause. Taunton dominated up front and ran riot behind. Tries came from everywhere. A lineout drive early on was finished off by prop Ben Moon. No.8 Tex Raratabu then blasted over from the scrummage base after flanker Geoff Arnold was held up over the try line.

One of several thundering runs by lock Ross Seaton scattered the cover and the orchestrators of the back line, half backs Hamish Reeves and Jon Martin with the silky centre pairing of Simon Martin and Matt Ayres, switched play to send speedster Ben Rudkin into the corner.

Next up was full back Bradley Field, full of running. He caught an errant clearance, booted ahead, took the kind bounce and dived over.

Taunton drove Camborne's scrum back and when the ball squirted out Reeves' alacrity ended with flanker Pieter Tosen strolling over with an unused overlap.

There was just time for the restart; Seaton rose and caught and Reeves was off like a bullet with the smuggled ball down the blind side. Winger David Webber made good ground as he did throughout and swift hands across the line saw lock Ross Ward touchdown.

Taunton caught the second session restart and, in the blink of an eye, Rudkin scored his second try in the left corner after a clever chip over his marker.

The frantic action subsided for a while until, on the hour, replacement tight head Chris Phillips, on for Scotland U20 triallist David Morton muscled into the same corner. Tom O'Keefe then replaced Ward in the second row and was part of the backs to the wall resistance that Taunton had to mount when Camborne amazingly found the energy to lay siege to the home try line.

In that time hooker Boschie Muller was sin binned for retaliation (the Somerset referee had not seen the provocation) and Phillips joined him for a technical offence.

Camborne's Cameron Bone was the beneficiary of the mathematical mismatch and raced into the left corner in stoppage time.

Replacement centre Ben Hunt found time and room in the few moments remaining to put Field in space to sidestep through the defence to the posts. Jon Martin landed his fourth conversion to bring down the curtain.

Taunton move into second place in the South West II (West) after Barnstaple's defeat at front runners Exmouth who are now three points in front of Taunton with a match in hand.

It looks like a three horse race for promotion with Exmouth the bookies' favourite and Taunton contesting the play-off spot with Barnstaple.

Bill Luckett