National 2 South

Taunton Titans 10, Tonbridge Juddians 22

TAUNTON'S top four ambitions faded further as they were beaten by Tonbridge Juddians at the Commsplus Stadium on Saturday.

The Titans dominated the early stages in terms of possession but could not break through a determined visiting defence.

Tonbridge consequently took the lead from their first attack of the match when winger Hugo Watson touched down for a try which was converted.

The visitors then saw two players yellow carded in quick succession but even then Taunton could not make inroads, continuing to be kept out by the resolute Juddians defence as the hosts failed to make use of the extra space.

It was 7-0 to the visitors at the break and that soon became 12-0 when Murray Galbraith-Lowe went over for an unconverted score.

The Titans belatedly got themselves on the board through Aron Struminski, whose try went unconverted, but Galbraith-Lowe's second restored a comfortable advantage for the visitors.

Taunton scored again to reduce the deficit to 17-10 and give themselves a chance of salvaging something, only for Watson to latch on to a crossfield kick and run in for his second of the game to wrap up a bonus-point win for Tonbridge.

Tony Yapp's side are now 12 points adrift of the top four with just four matches remaining.

Taunton: Connor Baker, Chris Francis, Isaac Dalton; Cory Teague, Dan Ogden; Julian Salvi, Max Woodward, Ben Oliphant-Thompson; Oli Massy-Birch, Lewis Webb; Freddie Fraser, Nick Mason; Ollie Rice, Aron Struminski, Gary Kingdom. Replacements (used): Andy Hamilton, Alex Rodd, Sam Prior, Stu Persey, Sam Baker