A tough trip for the Titans to the soon to be crowned league winners

Taunton Titans face the toughest test of the season so far when they make the trip along the M4 to Rams RFC this Saturday.

The Rams have had a great season and are sitting at the top of the table 12 points clear from second place Canterbury and with only 6 games to go it looks like only a matter of time before they are crowned deserved league champions. They have an unbeaten home record this season and have only lost twice during the current campaign with an defeat at Old Albanians and Tonbridge Juddians. At present the Rams have 112 league points and the Titans 88 however at the time of the previous game back in November things were a lot closer and the game was a classic.

The game ended 30 - 35 in favour of the Rams but the score line doesn't do any justice to the game and the way it unfolded.

First on to the score sheet were the Rams with a penalty try before the Titans ran in 4 tries, scored by Oscar Kolowski, Ollie Rice with 2 and Nick Mason, and took the lead 24 - 7. The Rams got a crucial try just before half time to close the gap. If the first half had all the excitement for the home crowd the second half had all the drama. After just 5 minutes into the second half second row Barrie-John Chapman was shown a red card which meant that against a quality opposition like the Rams the Titans were always going to be under pressure. That pressure told and the Rams scored a further 3 tries. to win the game with the Titans only managing 2 penalties from the boot of Gary Kingdom. To finish the game with 2 points was disappointing for the Titans but to play a team like Rams with only 14 men for over 45 minutes in total, when you add in the other yellow cards form the day and at one point only 13 men for 10 minutes it was always going to be hard to get a result.

This weekend gives the Titans players chance to see if they can mix it with the best in the league and the team chosen sees a few changes from last weekend's winning team. IN the front row Chris Francis and Isaac Dalton come in for Alex Spurdle and Alfie Petch respectively. In the second row Barrie-John Chapman replaces Cory Teague. In the backs Nick Mason returns into the centre with Freddie Fraser moving out to the wing with Ollie Rice missing out.

The Titans Team for Saturday

1. Connor Baker
2. Chris Francis
3. Isaac Dalton
4. Barrie-John Chapman
5. Milo Reynolds
6. Ben Oliphant-Thompson
7. Max Woodward
8. Sam Prior
9. Oli Massy-Birch
10. Lewis Webb (Capt)
11. Freddie Fraser
12. Toby East
13. Nick Mason
14. Matt Jess
15. Gary Kingdom
16. Andy Hamilton
17. Arran Wilman
18. Dan Ogden
19. Stu Persey
20. Sam Brown