SOMERSET VIKINGS 44-18 PLYMOUTH TITANS

Four tries in a twenty minute spell of the second half proved costly for the Plymouth Titans as they relinquished the top spot in the RLC South West Division, going down 44-18 to the Somerset Vikings at Taunton.

A below strength side due to wedding and holiday commitments, the Titans started well, with Phil Warby and Tom West replying to Mark Lees opening score for the Vikings, Billy Stockwell kicking the goal to give the visitors a 10-4 lead.

Play swung from end to end with defences on top until winger Simon Wright-Hider crossed out wide for Somerset just before the half time break, Lees kicking the difficult conversion to send the teams into the Hyde Park dressing rooms level at 10 points each.

Plymouth began the second half the strongest with Dan Foster scoring in the first set of six tackles following the restart  but this spurred the hosts to greater efforts and in an inspired twenty minute burst, the Vikings crossed the Titans line four times.

Carl Gilson, in his first appearance of the season due to injury, burst through several defenders for his first four pointer and he repeated the dose shortly after with a well worked play from the dummy half. Debutant Natabuturu broke the Plymouth defensive line to feed fullback John Ferguson with a classy inside pass for the custodian to stretch the black and white’s advantage to 26-14 and when Lloyd Willcocks scrambled over beneath the crossbar it looked all over for the Titans with a sixteen point margin to make up.

Plymouth needed to score next and they did so through Australian centre Warby touching down for his second score of the day. With the visitors playing catch up mistakes were inevitable and Richard Hodge pounced on a dropped ball in midfield to race fifty metres to dot down under the bar and kill off any hopes of a fightback.

Simon Bellamy ran on to a Tony Gill pass to complete the scoring and condemn the Titans to their second defeat of the year and drop to third place in the table.

PLYMOUTH TITANS: Carl Ranscombe,Tom West, Kyle Browne, Phil Warby, Danny Foster, Mike Ferguson, Billy Stockwell,Adam Wilkinson, Garry Mitchell, Jack Martin, Dave Shepherd, Gaz Williams, Martin Browne, Erik Sprangle jnr, Erik Sprangle, Jamie Miles, James Hannaford, Tony Chesworth

Tries – Phil Warby (2), Tom West, Dan Foster   Goal- Stockwell

SOMERSET VIKINGS: Tries-  Mark Lees, Simon Wright-Hider, John Ferguson, Lloyd Willcocks, Carl Gilson (2), Richard Hodge, Simon Bellamy Goals- Mark Lees (6)