RAMS suffered a first National One loss of the season as Gary Kingdom’s last-gasp penalty snatched an 18-17 victory for home side Taunton Titans.

On a wet afternoon at Veritas Park, the opening exchanges proved equal as the majority of play was contested in midfield, two stand-out breaks from Henry Bird and Kieran Leicester the only real highlights.

It was the home side who took the lead towards the end of the first quarter, though, Kingdom knocking over a penalty from in front of the posts and 30 metres out.

Rams rallied superbly, however, and with their rolling maul becoming more and more effective, they wrestled control.

Firstly, after securing possession in their opponents’ 22, a deft Drew Humberstone grubber kick was touched down by Ellis Jones, the fly-half knocking over the conversion to put his side 7-3 in front.

Things got even better for the away side shortly after, when another strong maul established field position for Jones to complete his brace as he smashed his way over from eight metres out.

Humberstone’s conversion made it 14-3, and they had the option of a shot at goal just before the break, only to kick to the corner upon which they could not grab a third try.

Rams did, though, extend their lead almost immediately at the start of the second period, Taunton caught off-side allowing Humberstone to slot a penalty to put his side 14 points to the good.

That, however, was as good as it got for the away team as Titans rallied superbly.
They won a succession of penalties in the Rams 22’ with Sean McDonnell-Roberts eventually yellow-carded for failing to roll away.

And Taunton made the most of their numerical advantage shortly after, spinning the ball wide for Frankie Dart to cross on the right flank.

Worse was to come for Rams as Taunton again established good field position, another couple of penalties leading to Ben Henderson following his teammate to the sin-bin.

Taunton elected to take a scrum five metres out – leading to Ollie Moffitt and Cam Zeiss temporarily replacing Jamie Guttridge and Connor Hayhow.

But while Rams were able to repel the scrum, they could not stop No. 8 Sam Prior picking-and-going at the base before powering over for a score converted by Kingdom.

Rams managed to avoid any further points being scored against them before having their full compliment restored, and seemed to have regained control as the game moved into injury time.

A 30-metre driving maul pushed them well into Taunton territory before it was finally brought down, but after a series of rucks they were eventually penalised for not releasing.

The hosts kicked to touch and then forced a penalty of their own on the Rams’ 10-metre line, and Kingdom made no mistake before the final whistle was blown.