National One Rugby: Leicester Lions 29-21 Taunton Titans
TAUNTON Titans suffered a narrow defeat at the weekend away from home against Leicester Lions.
The defeat means Taunton are even closer to relegation now and remain at the very bottom of the National One Rugby table.
It also means the Lions boosted their chances of survival with a well earned bonus point win and separate them further from Taunton.
In the first half all the action came from Leicester as the home side dominated territory in the opening exchanges.
This was down to some strong kicks from Luke Boucher, which ended up producing the first try after James Stubbs profited from an inside pass from Joe Brock who had made a line break out wide.
The Lions were in control, and doubled their lead on 13 minutes when Joey Patrick found himself on the end of another flowing move.
The first half rout was completed on 31 minutes when a clever chip from Dan Lewis was collected by Jamel Hamilton to score under the posts.
Lewis converted all three scores to give the Lions a strong 21-0 lead at the break.
The Titans came out for the second half on the front foot and scored almost immediately when a kick through took a nasty bounce and was retrieved by scrum half Connor Banks who ran in under the sticks.
Frankie Dart converted to bring the score to 21-7 and Taunton were back in it.
The Lions scored a penalty to extend the lead once more and soon after scored the bonus point try when number 8 Nick Cairns picked from the base of a scrum and crashed over in the corner.
But Taunton remained determined and rallied in the final quarter of the match to put the home side under real pressure.
Firstly Charlie Wright scored from close range with 10 minutes remaining and then with time up fly half Frankie Dart finished off a line break from Deago Bailey to score a deserved consolation score.
Taunton Titans: Louis Sinclair, Oliver Massy-Birch, Deago Bailey, Daniel Martin, Oscar Stewart, Frankie Dart, Connor Banks, Brian Ncube, Vaea Taione, Isaac Dalton, Samuel Leworthy, Charlie Rice, Ben Oliphant-Thompson, Charlie Wright, Ratu Vakalutukali
Subs: George Gosling, William Vaughan, Samuel Prior, Samuel Knott, Joesph Elsworthy.
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