Titans show what they can do

As one of the Titans travelling supporters said “They were as good this week as they were bad last!” and that they were. With conditions more or less perfect with the sun shining the opening minutes were taken up with some kicking tennis and both teams trying to find some territory. The Titans forwards dominated the home pack in all departments during the game and it was fitting that the forwards opened the scoring when close to the Old Albanians line and after several pick and goes flanker Jarrard Hayler powered over. Kingdom added the extras and did the same a few minutes later when after a penalty the instruction was to kick to the corner. The forwards won the line out and rumbled forward and eventually over the line with Alfie Petch flopping over on his first start for the Titans.

Lewis Webb then added a 3rd try. With the forwards taking on the home pack once again with drive after drive the Titans scrum half scored one from distance, for him, and managed to get himself over the line from 5 meters out and causing some extra work for the home groundsmen and the roller as he dove over. Kingdom kicked the extras before Old Albanians claimed their first points on the stroke of half time with a try and conversion from Daniel Watt, after their first bit of continued pressure on the visitor’s line.

The try just before half time gave the OA’s the impetus they needed and it was the home side that came out all guns blazing and claimed a second converted try, this one through winger Peter Warne. Taunton then went back to basics and from a scrum on the Old Albanians 5 meter line they drove the home pack towards the line only for them to stop the progress illegally and the ref went under the posts for a penalty try.

Prop Connor Baker then made it 5 tries with a strong drive once again thanks to the forwards creating the platform and with Kingdom converting once again the score was 14 – 35. This is when the tide turned and it was the home side that finished the strongest claiming a 3rd try through Toby Munday and converted by Watts. OA’s then chased the bonus point but some strong Titans defence held them out to claim the 5 points on the road.

With the excepting of Webb, who benefitted from the forwards pressure and some would say he is a forwards scrum half,especially when he goes down injured and the coaches ask a prop to warm up by mistake, it would be quite interesting to see how far back that a winning Titans team had all the tries scored by forwards. This proves that the Titans are developing and can play more than one way. They will now need to work on their consistency and make sure they can produce this type of performance week in week out, no matter the weather and no matter the opposition. Time will tell if they can but they have now set their own standard and will need to make sure they keep striving for more if they want to stay near the top of the table.