Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Victory could have been bigger
of rucks and a quick- offload sent Mccormick-huston over by the posts. Tom Best converted.
It was all looking cosy for Canterbury until a penalty gave Wild Geese their first flight into attacking territory.
A catch-and-drive and quick release to the backs saw wing Matt Killen slip into the line to make nonsense of the mid-field defence.
The try went unconverted and Canterbury looked more than capable of shrugging it off as they went back on the offensive.
But it was not until late in the half that Irish folded when the penalties against them piled up and centre Sean Cunningham went to the sin bin.
Canterbury drove hard from the back of a five-metre scrum and Rogers was able to plant the ball against a post for the score.
It was a modest return for the great shift put in by the front row, led by a man-of-the-match performance from Jim Green but a third try 18 minutes after the restart gave the city side a greater measure of control.
It was the front row who again obliged.
The score might have come earlier when Best’s neat line break was frustrated by a marginally- forward pass to the unmarked Guy Hilton but a powerful catch drive from a lineout eventually did the trick and Sam Kenny made the touch down. Best added his third conversion but at 21-5, the city side’s performance fell away.
The old weakness at restarts did them no favours as Irish took over possession and 12 minutes from the end their pressure brought a yellow card for Royce Cadman, quickly punished by a try for scrum half Dan GrantAdamson.
It was Canterbury’s turn to put up some effective defensive barriers but the Irish kept playing and pursuing their consolation point.
In the final minute, a great run and finish by Killeen, plus Pete Hodgknson’s conversion, meant they did not leave empty handed Canterbury: A.moss, G.hilton, JJ Murray, W.farris, K.thompson,t.best (repl W.hilton), K.braithwaite (repl D.smart), J.green, T.rogers ( repl C.townley), S.kenny, R.cadman, G.edwards, S,.rogers (repl M.cantwell), H.mccormick-huston (repl S.rogers), G.micans
Pilgrims completed a Zoo Shield double over the Irish second team, Wanderers, running in seven tries on the way to 45-5 victory.
A first-half blitz, which brought Canterbury 38 unanswered points, took the game away from the visitors but they dug in to make the contest much more competitive after half-time.
It took Canterbury just five minutes to crack the Irish defence when the backs moved the ball smoothly before Ross Comfort put Ben Nash away for the try.
It was a sign of things to come and prop Harry Dance scored the second from a pushover and Jamie Dowkes kicked the first of his five convesions.
A yellow card for the Irish didn’t help their cause and was punished by a Vaughn Meredith try and the lead was boosted to 19 points when Frankie Morgan sent Nash on a 50-metre run for his second touchdown.
Harry Sayers, playing his first game after a three-month injury lay-off, made the running for skipper James Shaw to grab Pilgrims fifth try and in the final minutes of the half, a good advantage played by the referee ended in John Gallgher crossing.
If the second half was not so effective it was because Pilgrims piled on their replacements and lost some of their rhythm.
Irish were handicapped by injury and another yellow card but managed a pushover try by the pack.
Morgan smashed through the tackles to complete a victory in which Pilgrims 17-year-old scrum half Izaak Timms earned plenty of good marks.