National One Rugby: Taunton Titans 26-45 Bishop's Stortford

THE Taunton Titans were well beaten at home against Bishop's Stortford on Saturday in what was a bottom of the table relegation battle.

The match at Veritas Park ended 26-45 as Taunton were outplayed by the visiting Stortford and slipped further behind at the bottom of the National One table.

It was a scrappy start and Titans were really off the pace in the early exchanges as they gave away four penalties inside eight minutes.

With good field position the visitors crossed for the opening try off a rolling maul. It was converted for 0-7 after 9 minutes.

After 15 minutes thought the Titans were level after a brilliant try set up by Deago Bailey who broke the line before passing to Connor Banks to score. Louie Sinclair converted and it was 7-7.

Taunton turned momentum in the game from this point and were in control for a ten minute spell.

They were nearly in for a carbon copy try minutes later but as Banks ran away to the try line the referee pulled it back for a forward pass.

Stortford grinded a way back into the game and after a lull for ten minutes they found a gap out wide and ran in for their second converted try of the afternoon to make it 7-14 after 35 minutes.

Instantly, the Titans replied though as Sinclair broke the line of defence with a quick turn of pace and picked out Bailey who ran in to score. Sinclair converted to level the score at 14-14 with two minutes left of the half.

The second half started off the wrong way for Taunton as Isaac Dalton was shown a yellow card for a high tackle five minutes in.

This was immediately followed by a very straight forward try for Stortford which wasn't converted but it put them back in front 14-19 after 46 minutes.

From the kick off a tap back from Taunton wasn’t caught and Stortford’s wing ran through the broken defence to score out wide right. It was converted and all of a sudden the score was 14-26.

Deago Bailey showed his ability once again to pull a try back for Taunton as he beat three tackles to score and Sinclair converted to bring it to 21-26 with 25 to go.

The next ten minutes were largely played in the middle with no real scoring chances.

But after being marched ten yards back for mouthing off Taunton were up against it and Stortford made them pay with a fifth try of the afternoon. It wasn’t converted but the score was 21-31 with just 8 minutes on the clock.

Stortford ran in another try soon after as Taunton got more desperate and turned the ball over. This time it was converted and the score was 21-38.

Sam Prior forced his way over to earn Taunton a fourth try bonus point but it was too little too late for the hosts.

In fact Stortford ran through their defence one more time for a converted try to make it 26-45 at full time.