Taunton Titans 17 Leicester Lions 27

The Lions Kicked Off and won the ball directly from that kick off and kept possession for the first 12 minutes of the game.  Press as they did, they were unable to break the Taunton defence.  On 13 minutes the Titans broke out from their own half and pressed the Lions line crossing after 16 minutes only for the referee to deem they were held up.  From the drop out Taunton pressed again and were rewarded with a penalty; Frankie Dart took the kick which drifted just wide.  On 23 minutes with a tap from one of the 11 penalties Lions gave away in the first half.  “Man of the Match” Will Vaughn drove at the line to be brought down just short but with the ball re-cycled nothing was going to stop second row Ben Oliphant-Thompson going over for the first try, which was converted to give Taunton a seven-point.  This lasted just 2 minutes as from the re-start Lions won the ball again from the kick off and some poor tackling allowed Lions wing Will Glister to go in for the try which was converted to level the scores.  On the stroke of half-time Lewis converted one of only four penalties given away by Taunton in the first half and the half ended in favour of Lions 10-points to 7.

The first try of the second half was likely to seem a turning point and on 44-minutes Taunton went over for the referee again to deem held up.  From the drop out Taunton pressed and were rewarded with a penalty which Frankie dart converted to level the scores.  Lions again kicked off short and contested the ball for Taunton to be deemed as knocking on.  Lions won the scrum and England under twenties centre Charlie Myall went in for the try, the conversion was missed.  Taunton then had a long period of possession but were unable to turn this into points Frankie missed a penalty on 63-minutes. It was against the run of play when Jake Sterland the Lions wing went in for try which gave them a 10-point lead.  Taunton continued to press and were rewarded with a try by Will De Boehmler which was converted and now just three points in the game and five minutes left on the clock.  That five minutes belonged to the Lions who were on the 79-minute mark were able to go over for a try which was converted to leave the final score Taunton 17 Leicester Lions 27.

After the recent rain, the pitch was remarkable and credit must go to the ground staff for providing such an outstanding playing surface.  There was little between the teams with perhaps the only difference being the outstanding defence of the lions against an ambitious Taunton side.

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