Canterbury’s promotion challenge in National 2 South gathered momentum with another bonus point win, this time against Taunton at Merton Lane on Saturday.

The visitors controlled the opening stages and built a 12-point lead before being hauled back by the city club, who scored four tries to earn a bonus point and a 27-17 victory.

The Titans dominated the set pieces early-on and the pack produced two catch and drive scores, first after centre Connor Hartley broke forward, with flanker Charlie Walker-Blair touching down the first try, which Gary Kingdom converted.

Canterbury No8 George Micans was sin-binned soon after and Taunton made their advantage count within a minute with prop Mark Manton plunging over following a lineout drive.

The visitors however were unable to extend their advantage during the following nine minutes and instead Canterbury sprung to life, scoring two tries in four minutes on their way to taking the lead by half-time.

The first came from an overlap after stolen lineout ball, with wing Kwaku Asiedu crossing, and soon after full back Martyn Beaumont blazed through a gap and raced 50m to touch down, with Tom Best converting, and then adding a penalty to make it 15-12 at the break.

Playing with the slope and the weather in their favour after the break, Beaumont chipped over the defence and won the chase to the ball to touch down, with Best adding the extras.

Just before the hour Beaumont tore away again, splitting the Taunton defence before sending Guy Hilton over to secure the bonus point.

The visitors continued to battle, and registered a late consolation through wing Nick Mason, but there was no time for them to close a 10-point deficit.

The city club are second and opened up a seven-point cushion over third-placed Ampthill, who do retain a game in hand, while Cambridge are third, nine points back after a second-straight defeat.