Rams opened the game with plenty of energy as they took the encounter to their hosts and were rewarded on the 14th minute with a penalty try after a strong driving maul was illegally ended by the home team. But the deficit seemed to generate a new sense of urgency from the Titans as they struck four times in 15 minutes with tries from Oscar Kolowski, Ollie Rice (2) and skipper Nick Mason, with man of the match and Taunton’s scrum half Jacob Nash orchestrating his side’s fight-back. With the score at 24-7, Rams turned the tide when some powerful phases led to an eventual Ben Henderson try, which was converted by Alex Seers to make the half-time score 24-14.

As in the first spell, Rams opened the second half brighter and the pressure seemed to get to their hosts when second-row Barrie-John Chapman was red carded for punching Jamie Guttridge on the 46th minute. To rub salt in the wound, it was Guttridge who dotted down on the 49th minute, Seers adding the extras to bring the score to 24-21. Titans now withstood an onslaught, but some excellent counter attacks grabbed field position and forced a penalty which Gary Kingdom slotted on the 63rd minute to make the score 27-21. An error from the restart gave Rams field position, from which a series of scrums led to their second penalty try of the afternoon and gave them a 1 point lead with 13 minutes to go.

The game seemed beyond Taunton when a series of phases moved the Rams from their own half to deep in the opposition’s 22, from which a superb offload by Ollie Taylor gave prop Sean McDonnell-Roberts a sprint to the line for Ram’s 5th try of the afternoon, Seers on target again to take the score to 27-35 to Rams. If the away supporters were hoping for the final 9 minutes to pass quietly with their side cruising to victory, they were disappointed. Titans, down to 14 men for most of the second half, and 13 men for part of it due to an earlier yellow card, ran the ball from just about everywhere and got themselves within sight of the Rams’ posts with a penalty advantage. The kick was eventually taken and slotted over by the ever reliable Kingdom – the score now 30-35 to Rams with 4 minutes to go. The suspense didn’t end there as a normally reliable Rams scrum gave up a penalty which Kingdom kicked deep into Rams territory for a line-out as normal time ended. The set-piece was won by Titans and the away fans had to endure a nerve wracking last minute as their side’s defence was tested to the end but stood firm until a final Taunton attack was held up to force a maul and the final whistle.

Rams coaches paid tribute to both teams in what was a cracking game to watch. Forwards coach Owen Root was complimentary of his side’s determination to come back from a 24-7 deficit saying “all credit to the boys, they were very calm at half time and knew exactly what was needed to win the game”. Head Coach Seb Reynolds was full of praise for Taunton “I think some people looked at Taunton’s defeat at Barnes when they shipped 50 points and thought this was going to be easy, but I can tell you that it’s never easy at Taunton because they are so dangerous with ball in hand, as they showed in the first half. I thought we showed real character in our fight back, which was epitomised by Alex Seers chasing down Nick Mason to prevent a certain try and then again at the end of the game holding the ball and player in the final tackle to bring the game to an end. He was excellent for us today”

This week Rams welcome Worthing Raiders to Old Bath Rd, KO 2:00 p.m.