CAN’T BE TAKEN LIGHTLY

Andy Pratt says Canterbury Rugby Club will be taking nothing for granted when they visit Henley Hawks in National 2 South on Saturday.

Canterbury’s 51-17 victory over the Hawks at the Marine Travel Ground in October remains their biggest of the season and set them off on a run of seven consecutive victories – only ended when they lost 18-14 at title-chasing Old Elthamians in December.

The teams meet again in Oxfordshire on Saturday and head of rugby Pratt says the previous meeting will have little or no bearing on the outcome.

Henley are 10th but five of their seven wins have come at home and Pratt said: “The home game against Henley sparked off the good run which we had leading up to Christmas but that’s ancient history now.

“They were in a pretty poor patch earlier in the season but they seemed to have steadied the ship now and still have quite a bit to play for. They won’t lack motivation.

“They’ll probably see consistency at home as their route to safety and it’s not been the happiest of hunting grounds for us.

“They’ve always had good links locally, they manage to source good players and I’m sure they will doing that at the moment.

“It’s difficult winning away from home in this division but we proved at Redruth (where they won 34-26 in November) that it is do-able.”

Canterbury’s 21-17 home win over London Wild Geese on Saturday consolidated seventh place – with a game in hand on the three sides above them – but while pleased with the victory, Pratt admitted there was room for improvement. He is also keen that Canterbury put an end to a sequence which has seen them follow up each of their last four wins with a defeat.

He added: “We wanted a win against the Wild Geese and got it.

“We felt that the team whose pack came out on top would win and it was a great performance from our forwards.

“We strung together some good phases in difficult conditions but if I’m being critical, we were not quite clinical enough.

“We probably left some scores out there

‘That game sparked off the good run which we had but that’s ancient history now’

which cost us a bonus point. It was frustrating but it would be more worrying if we weren’t creating chances.”

Pratt admits there are a few ‘knocks and niggles’ from the Wild Geese game but back in contention is three-quarter Harry Sayers, who came through a game for the Pilgrims at the weekend, having recovered from a shoulder injury.

Canterbury are on the road again on February 25 when they travel to promotion hopefuls Bishop’s Stortford for a re-arranged fixture. The game was scheduled to be played on January 21 but was postponed due to the weather.