Taunton Titans 59 - Leeds Tykes 28

A crowd of 1147 created an electric atmosphere in the ground and the Titans responded with an electric performance in the first twenty minutes by scoring three converted tries and dominating possession.  The first try came after just 5-minutes when Harry Strong burst through the centre and handed on to the ever present “man of the match” Brett Harvey who was tackled just short of the line.  From a quickly re-cycled ball “Toots” was on hand to score the first of three back row tries.  Iwan Jenkins, who whilst he was on the pitch made every conversion, slotted over and there was7-points on the board for Taunton.  With less than 10 minutes on the board we saw Noah Fenton, without any space, unbelievably make a break feeding on to his opposite wing Shai Bonnick, who gave the final pass to Jordan Ventor to score the second try which was converted by Iwan.  Just two more minutes pass and this time Shai makes the telling run, before handing on to Noah, who scored the third try which, with Iwan’s conversion, took the Taunton points tally to 21 without reply.  This looked as though with all of the possession there was going to be a rout.  But an error by Taunton saw some very classy interplay down the Leeds right wing resulting in their winger, Jacob Mounsey, scoring a try which Venables converted.  From the re-start the ball was caught by Taunton and went out to “Manny” who from his own half sliced through the Leeds defence and with the last line of defence to beat, passed on to Ewan Richards for the second of the backrow tries, and the fourth for Taunton, giving them a try bonus point.  There were very few penalties given away by both sides but just short of the half hour mark Taunton were awarded the penalty and kicked to the corner.  From the resultant lineout and maul, Alex Spurdle came up with the ball having scored Taunton’s fifth try of the afternoon.  With the halftime whistle looming Taunton allowed Leeds some space and this time with a good exchange down the Leeds left wing, their other winger, Harry Dukes, went in for the try taking the halftime score to Taunton 35 Leeds 14.

Just four minutes into the second half and a quickly re-cycled ball gave Harry Strong the opportunity from just outside the Leeds22metre line, to burst through a gap, and score the try.  Iwan Jenkins was left on the ground with an injury and so Jordan Petherbridge stepped up to add the extras and take the score for Taunton to 42-points.  The game then went into some sort of lull for the next 15 minutes, with neither side seeming to have much enthusiasm to score, however, on the sixty-minute mark, the Leeds replacement second row John Okafor burst through the Taunton defence and from the halfway line raced clear to score Leeds third try which Venables converted.  This seemed to wake proceeding up a little and Ben Oliphant-Thompson went in for Taunton’s seventh try.  Shortly after Leeds hacked through and chased after the ball.  With the foot race being in Leeds favour Shai was deemed to have tripped the chaser for which he received a yellow card and Leeds a penalty try.  This was their fourth and earned them a well-deserved try bonus point.  Charlie Wright then went in for the third of the backrow tries but the last word came to Isaac “sniffer” Dalton who took a quick tap from a penalty and used his pace and strength to go in for the try.  “Man of the match” Brett Harvey stepped up to take the conversion and missed and it was only later that we understood the significance of him taking the conversion with the very last kick of the match.  So, the game finished Taunton 59 Leeds 28.

The crowd stayed for the after-match presentations but before so doing the team huddle invited all those Titans players who were not playing in this game as well as all of the Warriors including their Coach and our Club Chairman John Wrelton and club sponsor British Gas, to join in. This demonstrated the clubs’ players spirit, which our coaches have built up amongst players over the season.  The celebrations continued with it being announced that Rams had beaten Esher and that the Titans would continue in League One next season.  The “man of the match” award was a real celebration of Brett Harvey not only for his performance on the day but over the season and the years, for Taunton, as this was to be his retirement game, although Chris Brown got his age wrong, he is only 35.  Then the supporter’s choice for “Player of the Year”,  Toots, was presented with the Ollie Massingham trophy.  Thanks then came from the players to their backroom volunteer supporters with the ground staff receiving bottles of brandy. Nicky Massingham flowers.  I received a bottle of Brandy which left me with a very emotional feeling.  Finally, a bottle for team manager Steve Frost.  Unless you have sat in the Team Office for the hour and a half after the game carrying out all of the Administration that has to be done, then you will not realise the importance of this volunteer, Steve.  For the players to dip into their own pockets to reward us shows just how much they love and appreciate the club.

We should not forget the importance of all of the supporter’s who in a difficult year have turned up and put their faith in the team.  All of the sponsors without whom the games would have been challenging to accommodate.  The Staff who have created the commercial aspect of the club to give us the facilities we have. Those young lads who turnup week on week to retrieve the balls, and last but not least, the ground staff.  We are the envy of clubs in this league for the quality of our playing surface provided for each game.

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