Taunton Titans v Luctonians

On a bright and sunny afternoon at Summerfield Stadium Nick Mason, led out the Titans to recognise his 200^th appearance for the team.  Luctonians kicked off to start the game and it was not long before they gained possession and for the next 15 minutes dominated that possession preventing the Titans from having any quality ball.  Whatever the new coaching team have done really did show as wave after wave of Luctonians attacks were repelled by a superbly well organised defence.  The tackling was sound and led with a stirring defensive contribution from “man of the match” Alex Spurdle.  12 minutes saw Jo Elsworth having to leave the pitch after receiving a knee to the eye and needing stitching to be replaced with Ben Oliphant-Thompson. The constant Luctonians pressure was eventually rewarded on 17-minuteswith a try from the Luctonians wing Robert Aikman which Jones converted to give Luctonians a seven-point lead.  The Titans were gradually winning more possession and with the ball in hand were showing their ability and in defence Luctonians were conceding penalties for which on 27 minutes they received their first of three yellow cards in the match.  The resultant lineout from the penalty was driven to the line and Archie Spokes went in for the try which TomPutt converted to level the scores.  Just three minutes later and Luctonians have a second yellow card and the two-man advantage for the Titans allowed Andrew Humberstone to use his pace and power in the centre to go in for the try which Tom Putt converted and gave the Titans a seven-point lead.  With just two minutes of the half left Luctonians were restored to 15 players and the Titans conceded the penalty.  The lineout from the penalty was won by Luctonians and some well organised defence kept the driving maul out and the ball was held up. For some reason a scrum to Luctonians was awarded and with a number eight pick up the try was scored.  The conversion was missed and the half finished with the Titans holding a slender two-point lead.

Just four minutes into the second half and Luctonians wing Aikman shrugged off two attempted tackles but was unable to get past Reece Malone who made a try saving tackle, however, the follow up by Luctonians hooker Ben Link resulted in the try which Jones converted and Luctonians were back in the lead. Just 5-minutes later and Ben Link was there again when a throw which went over the top of the lineout was gathered by him and an easy run in for the try.  The magic of Tom Putt was shown on54-minutes when using all of his skills he went through the gap and outsprinted the defence to score a try which he converted to take the Titans to within 5-points.  73-minutes and Luctonians kick a penalty and one of their players receives a yellow card.  75-minutes and Tom kicks penalty just5-points behind again.  Dying seconds Oscar Kolowski goes in for a try in the corner which is then ruled out as coming from a forward pass.  So close yet so far away.

A thoroughly entertaining match which kept the spectators on the edge of their seats.  There was lots of positive performances by this Titans team and we look forward to their next match all the way up the M5 and M6 to Chester next Saturday,

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