National 2S Canterbury 22 Taunton Titans 25

TAUNTON Titans got back to winning ways with a hard-fought win at Canterbury on Saturday, writes Keith Brooking.

With an early morning start and with a much-changed side from the previous week, it was the home side that started the brightest when the forwards drove a lineout with hooker Tom Rogers the beneficiary, claiming the try.

Fly-half Oli Best converted from out wide to give the hosts a 7-0 lead within five minutes.

With Taunton playing up the slope, they started to keep hold of the ball for longer periods and were rewarded with a try wide out from Dan Frost who, after playing hooker and back row over the last few weeks, found himself in the centre for the game due to injuries and un availabilities - and didn’t look out of place displaying his natural all-round talent.

Canterbury missed a penalty before the Titans took the lead for the first time when centre Nick Mason went over in the corner.

The conversion was missed and Canterbury had the opportunity straight from the kick-off to level the scores with a simple penalty in front of the posts which Best kicked.

Just before the half-hour, Frost claimed his second try, again out wide, to give the Titans the lead once more and make the half-time score 10-15.

Once again it was the hosts that started the brightest and flanker Hugh Mc- Cormick-Huston powered his way over with Best converting to give Canterbury the lead.

Frost was then yellow-carded for an offence close to the line but the Titans held Canterbury out while he was off for nine minutes and, with Frost coming back on at the next break of play, couldn’t quite hold on and Canterbury scored a try by back row Tyler Edwards.

With 20 minutes to go there was no panic in the ranks and the game went from end-to-end with the visitors probably having the better of the chances.

Canterbury conceded a penalty close to the posts when they were under a lot of pressure and full-back Gary Kingdom kicked the goal to bring the Titans within three points.

With just over five minutes to go it was Frost, once again, who showed good strength and power to score his hat-trick try and give the Titans the lead.

With Kingdom adding the conversion it made the score 22-25.

Canterbury threw everything in attack but came up short when they were stripped in the tackle and the ball was kicked into touch for the Titans to claim the bonus point win.

Taunton Titans - Kingdom (capt), Struminski, Mason, Frost, Bright, Webb, Massy-Birch, Chase, Gatford, Caulfield, Persey, Lugg (Lonsdale 59), Harvey (Gibbs 40), Newsam (Harvey 53), Prior (Oliphant-Thompson 68) Titans - Tries: Frost 13, 28, 73; conver - sion: Kingdom 74; pen: Kingdom 64