National Two South

Bury St Edmunds 24 Taunton Titans 34

TITANS returned home from a mammoth trip to Suffolk with five points in their company, after overcoming a disastrous start to beat Bury St Edmunds 34-24 on Saturday.

Tries from Jake Caulfield, Ratu Vakalutukali, Oli Massy-Birch and Oli Claxton sealed the bonus-point win for Titans, while Gary Kingdom added 14 points from the kicking tee.

It was the hosts who started the stronger and caught the Titans cold after their long trip east, scoring two converted tries with all the points scored by full back Scott Lyle in the opening five minutes.

The Titans finally woke and began to keep hold of the ball and gain some momentum, whilst causing Bury some problems.

After 20 minutes the Titans were rewarded with a try through prop Jake Caulfield. With a Bury scrum on their own five-metre line, the Titans applied pressure and as the home number eight picked up from the base, he was forced sideways and lost the ball in the tackle.

Centre Freddie Fraser nearly claimed the try, but the ball was sent out for Caulfield to flop over the line. Kingdom added the extras.

After 30 minutes Ratu Vakalutukali was introduced after Paul Davis took a blow to the leg – and he had an immediate impact, bursting through the tackle to run in under the posts from 22 metres - Kingdom again added the extras to level the scores at 14-14.

The Titans then took the lead just before half time when Kingdom kicked a penalty, but Bury St Edmunds came out after the break all guns blazing.

It was, however, the Titans who scored first with a penalty through the boot of Kingdom to extend their lead.

But this was short lived, as Bury scored another well-worked converted try to regain the lead, 21-20.

The next score was crucial and it was Titans who gained the initiative.

From a Titans lineout close to the Bury line, the ball was driven forward before being spread across the field from one side to the other - and after a great cross-field kick from fly half Lewis Webb, winger Oli Massy-Birch hung on to drop over the line. Once again, Kingdom converted make the score 21-27.

With 10 minutes remaining, the home side kicked a penalty through fly half Ben Traynor, to bring them within three points and start a dramatic finally.

The Titans replacements came off the bench to make a great impact – and after a rare miss by Kingdom, the resulting drop out was returned with interest by Freddie Fraser.

It wasn’t long before the home side ran out of defenders and scrum half Oli Claxton ghosted over under the posts for the bonus-point try.

Kingdom added the conversion to give Taunton a ten-point lead with four minutes to go.

The Titans defence held firm as Bury threw everything at them.

They did have a kickable penalty to get a losing bonus-point, but took the quick tap and the opportunity went astray as the Titans forced the knock on.

This win has certainly set up next week’s game against Cambridge at Hyde Park as the game of the week, and there will be several teams near the top of the league who will be following at the result with interest.