Defeat will help us refocus

Head of rugby Andy Pratt says Canterbury must refocus and work on rediscovering their pre-christmas winning formula – although he admits doing it away to leaders Bishop’s Stortford on Saturday will be an enormous task. Canterbury suffered a 42-25 defeat at home to bogey side Clifton on Saturday – their first defeat at the Marine Travel Ground since October – to fall eight points adrift of the top-five in National 2 South. It completed the double for the Bristol side over Pratt’s men and he admitted: “I was nervous about the game and it turns out I was proved right to be. “They are a dangerous side. We were poor and the lads were honest about it afterwards. “All credit to Clifton, though, they were better than us and deserved to win. “In the long-term picture, it’s not the worst thing to have happened because it will definitely help us refocus. “We had a good run before Christmas (seven straight wins) but it’s a tough division and if you let your standards drop in any game, then you are going to get a sharp reminder and we had that on Saturday.” He added: “There are areas where we have got to improve and the lads are working hard in training. “We have not come out of Christmas well. We got the win against Barnstaple (on January 7) but that probably covered over a few cracks a bit – cracks which Clifton exposed.” Canterbury pipped Stortford 38-34 at home in October but the Essex side now lead the way, 17 points ahead of Canterbury and Pratt (pictured) added: “They are probably the best all-round team in the league. “They should be pretty focused given where they are in the table and the stage of the season we are at, plus they won’t want to slip up against us for a second time. “We know the enormity of the task in front of us.” Pratt admits he will have to ‘reshuffle the pack’ as Max Cantwell and Tyler Edwards are ruled out although Royce Cadman will be involved in the squad after regaining fitness following a lengthy ban.