Titans hit the half century

On a bitterly cold day Taunton Titans ran out convincing winners against Bury St Edmunds and will be more pleased with an excellent defensive effort to keep the visitors from scoring than their attack where they still have room for improvement.

Taunton opened their account on 2 minutes when winger Aron Struminski made a break down the wing before Sam Prior made a considerable dent in the defence. With the defence retreating Captain Nick Mason ran straight and hard and broke free to run in the try. The forwards then got in on the act with two tries from close range. Both of these were scored by back rowers first Jarrard Hayler went over from close range after Ollie Rice and Sam Prior disrupted the defence and the second from Dan Lee was a carbon copy of the first with his pack helping him over the line. In difficult kicking conditions Gary Kingdom converted both of these but failed when after an excellent defensive effort on their own try line the Titans turned the ball over through Ollie Rice which allowed Lewis Webb to clear the lines and as Bury St Edmunds let the ball bounce Mason collected it just outside his own 22 and had the pace to run the length and went in for his second of the afternoon. Next winger Noah Sixton scored his first try for the Titans, an off load in the tackle by Dan Lee allowed Lewis Webb to make a break down the line and with a Matt Dawsonesk dummy confused the last defenders but knowing he didn’t have the pace passed inside for Sixton to run in. Kingdom kicked the extras but missed once again before the end of the half as the forwards rumbled over once more with prop Connor Baker scoring and making the half time score 36 – 0

The temperature dropped and the rain started and not a lot happened in the second half until a tackle on the Bury 22 by Sam Williams dislodged the ball for Ratu Vakalutukali to scoop up and power over to score. The Titans finished off the day with the forwards driving towards the line and Sam Prior using his considerable weight advantage to cross the line and with Kingdom kicking the conversion on the final whistle it brought up the 50 points.

The County Stores Man of theMatch was awarded to Lewis Webb who had his best game of the season, perhaps it was down to fitting into a smaller shirt!!

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