National 2 South
Bury St Edmunds 8, Taunton Titans 22

THE Titans had an early start as they headed east, but a tremendous defensive display made the long journey worthwhile, as they ground out the win against a good Bury St Edmunds, writes Keith Brooking.

The Titans kicked off and spent the first seven minutes defending as Bury St Edmunds went through the phases working their way up the field.

The visitors kept their discipline, and won a penalty which was taken quickly, Ratu Vakalutukai feeding Dan Frost, who made the break out.

Frost sent fly-half Ted Landray into space and he raced away into the opposition 22 before drawing the last defender to send in Nick Mason under the posts.

Gary Kingdom kicked the conversion, then a penalty from the 10-metre line to extend the Titans' lead to 10 points.

Taunton then got a second try after Bury gave away a string of penalties and the Titans kicked to the corner and drove the resulting maul over the line, Jon Gatford claiming the try.

The conversion was missed but the Titans led 0 – 15 after 25 minutes.

The home side then started to put some pressure on the Titans line and were rewarded with an unconverted try from Sterling to trail 15-5 at half time.

It was Bury that started the brightest in the second half and forced Taunton to give away a penalty which Lyle kicked to bring his side within one converted try.

With their tails up the hosts kept the pressure on the Titans and were rewarded with another penalty to close the gap, but it was pushed wide.

The next 20 minutes was a stalemate that was mainly played in the middle third of the pitch, with a missed penalty from Kingdom the only chance of points.

With still a score in it Bury pushed to try and get level but after another good defensive set by the Titans the ball was turned over just outside their 22 and number 8 Tom Lawday sped his way down the wing.

He was felled five metres short and the ball was recycled across to the opposite wing for Tom Popham to charge his way over.

Kingdom added the conversion from out wide to make the score 22-8 to the visitors with only a couple of minutes left.

Bury tried to claim the last word with a score but once again the Titans defence held firm, and after getting the turnover penalty they tried to go the length for a bonus-point try, but the ball ended up in touch for the final whistle.

Taunton Titans; Kingdom, Popham, Mason (captain), Fraser, Bright (Tichias 53), Landray, Webb, Chase (Rhodes 53), Gatford, Owlett (Rhodes 46-53), Persey (Gibbs 62), Lugg, Vakalutukali, Frost, Lawday. Replacements not used: Andy England, Tom Hooper.