Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Few frills in hard-earned win
sent Guy Hilton over for his 17th try of the season.
The conversion was missed but with the wind and slope in their favour after the break, the odds were heavily on the city club.
Raiders, however, met that challenge head on and their hard-working pack, with No.8 Dino Lamb always prominent, took control of possession.
Canterbury did edge into the lead after good work at the breakdown won a penalty goal for Tom Best but starved of the ball, they were largely neutralised.
It took a good turnover and some quick thinking to maximise one of their shrinking scoring chances. Scrum-half Dan Smart kicked into space and with Will Farris and Kieran Thompson in pursuit it was Thompson who grabbed a bouncing ball to score.
That left Worthing 12 minutes to add to their losing bonus point and they upped their game considerably, winning penalties and prime attacking positions.
It took brave, scrambling defence to repel them as, not always wisely perhaps, they chose the scrum as their attacking weapon and Canterbury survived. Canterbury: A.moss, G.hilton (repl J.jones), JJ Murray, W.farris, K.thompson, T.best, D.smart, A.cooper, T.rogers, S.kenny (repl J.green), J.green (repl C.townley), G.edwards, T.burns (repl R.cadman), S.rogers, H.mccormick-huston, J.stephens.
Canterbury Pilgrims had more possession, territory advantage and more opportunities to win their Zoo Shield game at Hertford 2nds but it was a day when everything went wrong and they lost 25-16.
The backs looked dangerous and the forwards worked tirelessly – Joe Craig having one of his best games – but they just could not break down the home defence.
Early pressure from the Pilgrims resulted in a penalty, converted by Will Hilton but Hertford fought back and took the lead with a catch-and-drive score from a lineout.
Still Canterbury could not quite gets things going but then Nat Taylor combined with Hilton to send Vaughn Meredith through to score.
Hilton converted and added a penalty goal to push the lead out to eight points but, on the stroke of half-time, poor defending let the home side in for a converted try.
An exchange of penalties early in the second half kept Canterbury a point in front but the loss of the influential Taylor and Callum Stuckey to injury disrupted them and Hertford closed out the match with two unconverted tries.
Despite holding territorial advantage in their 17-13 Premier East win over Medway 3rds, the closest Canterbury 3rds came to breaching a strong defence in a scoreless first half was being held up over the try line. The second half began with the scrums going uncontested, following an injury to a Medway front row player.
The home side had been superior in this facet of the game, winning a number against the head, so it favoured the visitors who soon capitalised and went into an eight-point lead with a quick try and penalty.
The city club were not to be denied, however, and a great finish from Josh Rowan on the right wing, followed by a burrowing try from Adrian Riggs in the same corner, gave them the lead their performance deserved.
With the game opening up, Canterbury then scored the try of the game. A great break from Ollie Simpson and some quality offloads saw Brad Allchurch touch down and Scott Payne’s conversion finally bought some breathing space.
Medway fought their way back with an unconverted try but Canterbury’s committed defending s aw them home.
Canterbury 4ths suffered an unexpected 25-7 loss against a better prepared and more cohesive Medway 4ths side.
Plenty of territory, turnovers and possession were available but the city side were unable to convert them into points.
By the time Canterbury scored, they were four scores down and it was injury-time before Rory Howard wandered off his wing to create the extra player and send Jack Childs in unchallenged.