Clifton overcome slow start to beat Canterbury

CLIFTON returned from a trip to Canterbury with a further five points from a 38-24 victory and third place in the National Two South table.

In the early stages, Cifton fell 12 points behind their hosts, but they levelled the scores by half-time and then secured a good lead before Canterbury started to catch up.

However, a final flourish brought Clifton a sixth try to reinforce their victory.

Again, centre Marcus Nel was at the cutting edge of Clifton’s attacks, with popular second row Henry Harper crossing twice.

Playing with a strong wind, the home team scored twice before Harper split their forward defence to go over, and full-back Alex Howman used his speed to level the scores.

Clifton began the second half with more determination and fire with Nel carving his way over and second row George Taylor, a former England Under-18 player, who has come up via the Clifton Junior set up, took advantage of a missed tackle to increase the tally.

Harper added his second try before the hosts came back into the game to reduce the deficit and force Clifton to raise their concentration levels.

The final Fin Sharp try, off the back of a driving maul, completed the scoring to put Clifton in a more comfortable place and able to enjoy the homeward journey.

Clifton host fourth-placed Worthing next Saturday. Pressure will be on Esher and Redruth, who sit above them in the table, going for the promotion slot

The final three Clifton games include a tasty home derby fixture with in-form Dings Crusaders. » Dings Crusaders produced a superb all-round performance to defeat Henley 40-5 at Shaftesbury Park.

The home side’s dominance was reflected on the scoreboard with a six tries to one winning margin. Crusaders have now won six games in a row, but this victory was particularly sweet, as the last time they triumphed over the Hawks was March 6, 2012 - a 25-22 victory at Landseer Avenue.

The opening quarter was extremely physical as both packs tried to gain the upper hand. Dings got the breakthrough on 20 minutes when flanker Chris Rovery went over. TJ Wilstead, who had a fantastic match at fly-half for Dings, converted. Henley hit back sixminutes later with a superbly-taken effort from wing Reuben Norvill.

Rovery crashed over in the corner on 32 minutes for an unconverted try, but crucially, Crusaders went over again on the stroke of half-time - this time wing Tom Hargan split the Henley defence from a set play and dotted down under the posts. Wilstead converted to make it 19-5 at the interval.

Hooker Tom Anderson went over on 49 minutes for his 14th try of the season before Hargan beat several defenders to score a wonderful individual try on 72 minutes. Replacement scrum-half Archie Stapleton converted from the touchline.

Dings hit 40 points when Anderson, who was now playing on the flank, crashed through the tiring Hawks defence and dived over to score his 15th try of the campaign. Stapleton converted to put the icing on the cake.

» This report first appeared on pitchero.com/clubs/dingscrusadersrfc.