Taunton Titans Vs Hull
Taunton Titans Vs Hull
Taunton 73 Hull 18
“Man of the match” George Worboys scored 28-points in Taunton’s resounding win over Hull in this match and demonstrated a tremendous ability with the first of his two tries. Picking up the loose ball from a Taunton mistake he individually dummied, side stepped several time and then used acceleration and pace to completely evade the Hull defence to score under the posts. This raised an ovation from the crowd of 804 and must have brought back from all of the former player, whose lunch it was, memories of themselves in their “heyday”.
The first 6 minutes of the game went to Hull as they denied Taunton any possession and territory. Indeed, they opened the scoring on6 minutes when Taunton conceded a penalty to give Hull that three-point lead. As Taunton gained more possession so they started to make in roads into the Hull defence and so after 12 minutes Charlie Wright went over for the first of his three tries of the afternoon. Worboys converted and Taunton had a lead which they never lost all afternoon. Whilst Jordan Petherbridge scored the second try it was the interplay down the right wing which demonstrated just how good the backs have become. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Manny) showed blistering pace in evading the defence before interplay by the two centres eventually saw the ball in Jordan’s hands to dive over and score. George converted and almost from the kick off a rolling maul close to the Hull line saw the ever-present Isaac (sniffer) Dalton go in for one of his trademark tries. 21-points and only 19 minutes on theclock and just 2 minutes later we saw the explosive nature of Manny whose individual pace and flare rewarded him with a try. Whilst George missed the conversion Taunton had the try bonus point and looked comfortable. Even though Hull were defending they were avoiding giving away penalties, but Taunton were not and on 25 minutes one such penalty saw Hull kick to the corner and from the resultant lineout they caught the ball and mauled to the line for an unconverted try. This spurred Taunton back into action and just 2minutes later Charlie Wright was over for his second of the afternoon which was again converted by Worboys. Hull then showed that they had some good ability in the forwards and for the last ten minutes of the half retained possession and attacked the Taunton line and just before half-time Taunton under pressure conceded a penalty which Hull Kicked to touch. From the lineout they again mauled their way to the line for a try leaving the half-time score Taunton 33 Hull 13.
Hull came out with purpose in the second half and showed that they had a very strong pack, and it was only some really big hits and strong tackling from the Taunton forwards which kept them out. This time it was Hull who conceded the penalty and so Taunton kicked to touch, won the lineout and Charlie Wright broke from the maul to score his third of the afternoon which was not converted. Some changes of the team had taken place with Brian Ncube coming on for Isaac Dalton, Toots for Bret Harvey, and Connor Banks for Jordan Petherbridge. With only his second touch of the ball Connor Banks scored the 7th Taunton try and whilst he was the finisher it was Jordan Venter who made the initial break before handing on to Ewan Richards, both of whom had outstanding games. Ewan carried on the break but being tackled short of the line he was able give a pass which allowed Connor to eventually score. The 50-points came up when Toots, whose full name is Ratu Vakalutukali, made one of his breaks from the base of the scrum and handing on to the ever present, in support, George Gosling. The try was converted but it was not long after when George Worboys scored that try already described and with fifteen minutes left 60-points seemed on the cards. We then saw just how effective Hull could have been if their wing Jack Edwards had been given the ball with a little bit of space as he cut through the Taunton defence to score Hull’s third try. Two more tries came from Taunton with Shai Bonnick using his strength and pace to score the 10thand George Worboys going in for the 11th try to take the points tally over 70.
Whilst focusing on the scoring there were some other very relevant points of notice in the game. Sam Prior put in some very big hits close to the rucks and mauls, Nick Mason by chasing back pulled off an outstanding tackle to stop a certain Hull try. Isaac Dalton went off to make way for Brian Ncube at tight head but when Will Vaughn went off and Isaac returned it was Brian who filled the loose head position as he is effective in both roles. Ewan Richards who was outstanding as a flanker moved to the second row with no disruption to the scrum to be equally as outstanding. The whole team performed well and supported each other to give a final score with the eleven tries of forwards 5 backs 6.
