Battling Rams get the points
Taunton Titans 30 Rams 35
RAMS battled back from 17 points behind to clinch their seventh straight victory.
Despite starting brightly to take the lead, the visitors found themselves 24-7 down at Taunton during the first half.
However, Seb Reynolds’ charges stormed back after the restart, grabbing a win in the final 10 minutes of the contest thanks to a late try from Sean McDonnellRoberts.
“I think some people looked at Taunton’s defeat at Barnes when they shipped 50 points and thought this was going to be easy,” said Rams head coach Reynolds.
“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 fightback, 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.”
Rams got their noses in front in the 14th minute courtesy of a trademark penalty try following a strong driving maul.
But that seemed to spark Titans into life, incredibly scoring four tries in the space of just 15 minutes through Oscar Kolowski, Ollie Rice (2) and Mason to stun the away side.
Reynolds’ men halted the slump to pull the score back to 24-14 by half-time when Ben Henderson crashed over with Seers converting.
And Rams continued to battle back after the restart, aided by a red card for Taunton’s second-row Barrie-John Chapman for punching Jamie Guttridge.
Guttridge then dotted down three minutes later with Seers again kicking over to cut the deficit to 24-21.
Rams piled on the pressure, but the 14 men of Taunton held firm and scored again themselves on the counter-attack, winning a penalty which Gary Kingdom slotted through the posts.
But back came the Rams, completing the comeback to take the lead when an error from the restart gave them field position, which eventually led to another penalty try following a series of scrums.
A fifth try for the league leaders appeared to have settled the contest when Ollie Taylor teed up McDonnell-Roberts, only for Kingdom to kick over to cut the gap to 35-30 to send up a grandstand finish.
Titans earned themselves a late line-out as they sensed a dramatic win, but Rams did just enough to hold onto victory.
Now with 11 games gone, Rams sit top of the table, seven points clear of rivals Henley.
Reynolds’ charges host Worthing Raiders on Saturday (2pm).
RAMS: Duffelen, Rossiter, Bryant, Humberstone, Corrigan, Seers, Lloyd, Kidd, Henderson, Baker, Taylor, Etete, Crame, Vooght, Guttridge.
Reps: Drew, McDonnell-Roberts, Wolf, Richardson, Illingworth.