Darlington Mowden Park Vs Taunton Titans

Clear skies and a calm day made for ideal playing conditions for the Titan's visit to Darlington, writes Hugh Duder.    What should have been a close game because of their close proximity in the league table was marred by a shoulder injury to centre, Freddie Fraser, five minutes into the game, which weakened the Titan's defences.  Greg Kitson was the replacement with Tom Stewart moving to the centre from his wing, a position that was totally new to him. On nine minutes Darlington opened the scoring with Pass man scything through the Taunton defence and then on twenty-four minutes Jordan Petherbridge was shown a yellow card and DMP profited immediately from a driving maul with the try being converted, 12-0.   A penalty on the half hour by Iwan Jenkin  reduced the deficit to 12-3 followed by an unconverted try for skipper,  Charlie Wright, reducing the deficit to four points. However, a further score by DMP on the stroke of half time by Man of the Match Liam Checksfield  who stepped inside the visitor's defence for a converted try- half time score 19-8.

A matter of minutes after the restart the thorn in Taunton's side, Checksfield, sprinted away for second converted try, 26-8.   By now the game was up when Titans kicked away possession which resulted in a catch and run for a Fantini converted try, 33-8.   Taunton hit back on 64 minutes through replacement hooker, Chris Francis,  as their driving maul again showed it's strength.   A frantic final 15mintes saw chances for both sides but Titan's lineout weakness continued.   DMP finished the stronger, scoring their sixth try with Walker sprinting clear to score under the posts.   This was claimed to be DMP's best performance of the season with Taunton regrettably not at their best.   The coaches were all disappointed but as Tony Yapp pointed out the fixture list has made it a difficult first three months of the league campaign with four long-distance away games packed into the first ten matches and player availability and injuries not helping.   He looked forward with some optimism.

Titans will enjoy a well-earned rest this coming weekend before regrouping to take on unbeaten league leaders, Rams(Reading), on November 26th at home

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