Taunton 2's Vs Tor

If Tor had been allowed to play as they did within the first5 minutes, then the game would have had a different outcome. Within that period of time The Warriors only touched the ball twice legally and gave away 5penalties.  It was the power of the Tor pack and their dominance which starved the Warriors of any ball.  The last of the 5 penalties Tor kicked at the posts and secured a three-point lead.  Tor continued to press but the Warriors won a ball on 8 minutes which went back to full-back Ben Alvis who coming from deep opened up the Tor defence and raced from well within his own half to score the Warriors first of 15 tries.  Although Rhodri missed the kick, he made up for it 4 minutes later when he scored the first of his three tries.  Again, he missed the conversion but almost from the restart Jack Connor went over for the first of his three tries which this time was converted.  Not long after scrum-half Sam Baker went over for another unconverted try.  Tor then had a purple patch and demonstrated their dominance in the scrum and managing to keep possession.  The Warriors started to give away penalties again and from one Tor were able to kick to the corner win the lineout and their captain Harrison Collins rumbled over for a try from the lineout maul giving the Warriors a lead of twenty-two – points to eight.  Two more unconverted tries before half time left the score at the Warriors 32 Tor 8 at the break.

Tor kicked off to start the second half and Chris Mills who seemed to be the recipient of most of the Tor kick off’s, fielded the ball and fed second row Taine Benson who burst the first line of defence and then completely out paced the Tor defence to run from his own 10metre line and score next to the posts, his pace was that of a winger rather than a second row.  Rhodri converted the try as he did the next one scored by Henry Webb.  The forwards then got on the score sheet with prop Josh Courts coring, which was followed by two tries from Rhodri, the first really showed his ability to sidestep as he danced through the Tor defence.  Sam baker took over kicking duties and converted both of Rhodri’s tries.  We then had a try from replacement Josh guest playing of the wing.  This gained the most applause from the crowd and from amongst his own players as Josh had spent 8 years as a ball boy for the Titans running up the outside of the line and now had his opportunity to run up his left wing, from inside his own half, evading the tackles of several of the Tor defence to score which Sam Baker converted.  The pace and the endless chasing of shadows by the Tor defence was now beginning to show.  Ben Fenton the right wing then managed to get on the score sheet, whilst not scoring tries before this point he had been instrumental in creating space for several of the others which were scored.  The final try of the afternoon went to the “Front Row Union” when Liam Dray was justly rewarded for a lot of hard work during the match.

The game was won by the amount of space created by the backs.  The forwards had to work hard especially the front three and those forwards will need to be able to cope with what will be a bigger pack next week against Imperial.

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