TITANS head coach Tony Yapp admitted a sloppy ten minute spell in the second-half cost his side dear at Old Albanians after they slipped to their second league defeat of the season.

Yapp was satisfied with Titans’ first-half showing but was left to rue a sub-par start to the second period, in which they made ‘basic errors’ and conceded two ‘soft tries’.

Yapp said: “After a good training week and despite a couple of late pull outs we were quietly confident we could go to OA's and get a result - and for 40 minutes playing into a very strong wind, we competed well, making big in roads with ball in hand and defending with good width and a hard edge.

“Our set piece was also causing a problem for them and at half-time, we felt we were in a great position to push in the second half and get a result.

“The thing is with this league if you don't front up or you lose intensity for just a minute teams are good enough to take advantage and that's exactly what OA's did for 10 minute of the second-half.

“We made basic errors and gave them too many opportunities to put the ball wide and this inevitably cost us as we conceded two early soft tries, which forced us to play catch up and allowed them the comfort to play.

“On the day, we were not accurate enough at critical times and conceded because of it. We will learn from today and look forward to welcoming Canterbury next week.”

Titans will be looking to bounce back this weekend against a resurgent Canterbury team.

After a great start to the season the visitors to Hyde Park this weekend had won their opening three games before slipping to seven consecutive defeats.

However, over that last couple of games Canterbury have found a bit of form, narrowly losing to Old Albanian, by only four points and on Saturday, winning their first game in eight weeks against Dorking.

The visitors boast former Fijian International fly-half Nicky Little as a head coach, who scored over 650 points in his 71 international caps.

As well as former Wasps player Darren Malloy as forward coach.

Titans hope to be able to recall both Sam Prior, who pulled out 30 minutes before kick-off last weekend, as well as Charlie Walker-Blair who pulled out on the Friday of last week.

With these two power houses in contention, the fixture looks likely to be an explosive encounter and with the team being watched by the former players, who will be lunching before the game.