Birmingham Moseley 35-22 Taunton Titans

TAUNTON endured their fourth consecutive defeat at the hands of Birmingham Moseley at The Reddings, writes Hugh Duder.

A try down in the first minute followed by a second after five minutes through line breaks gave Moseley early momentum at 0-14.

A pointless period of Titans domination couldn’t unlock the host’s resolute defence.

Instead, it was Moseley who scored again through a ten metre driving maul on 20 minutes to make it 0-21.

The second quarter and Titans made further incursions into the hosts 22 but some wild passes and a scrambling home defence denied the visitors and the score remained 0-21 on half time.

Taunton came out for the second half on the charge and two determined runs by Ollie Rice led to be Ben Olliphant-Thompson going in for their first try, 5-21.

Three minutes later Noah Fenton went over, both tries were unconverted, and the score was 10-21.

A quick response gave Moseley their try bonus point, 10-28.

Taunton’s scrum half was yellow carded for tipping having made a decent break.

From the resulting penalty, Taunton won the lineout and Charlie Wright scored a converted try on 64 minutes to take it to 17-28.

A second yellow for Moseley followed, but they then scored their fifth try to take it to 17-35 on 68 minutes.

A penalty and lineout on 76 minutes saw the ball delivered out wide and Fenton went in for his second try and Taunton’s fourth helping the visitors to the try bonus point.

A lost lineout in the dying moments and the chance of a second bonus point gone.

Moseley converted all five of their tries which was almost the difference at the final score as Taunton won the second half 22-14.

Next up is unbeaten league leaders Rams (Reading). The game kicks off at 3pm on Saturday, September 30 at Veritas Park. Entrance for non-ticket holders is £15, and Under 16s are free.

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