Canterbury outfought by struggling hosts

Relegation-threatened Rochford showed too much fight for Canterbury, winning their National League 2 East clash 28-26, writes David Haigh.

Despite starting positively and leading at the break, the visiting city side were too casual and inaccurate to put away some decent first-half chances - and those failures came back to bite them. Harvey Furneaux’s seventhminute try, converted by Frank Reynolds, made Rochford look vulnerable but they soon put that idea to rest when fly-half Tauren Henwood stepped neatly through midfield with a quick reply.

However it was Canterbury who held the attacking edge. The forwards did the work again for a Billy Young try, which left Reynolds an easy kick, but that was all they could find.

On the stroke of half-time Cris Dudman’s penalty goal sliced the Canterbury lead to six points and they were soon under pressure from a firedup home side after the restart. It earned Rochford territory and penalties and two from Dudman levelled the scores. Going into the last quarter a disjointed Canterbury fell behind to a converted try by Rory Gray but then found some momentum of their own, earning a close-quarters try for Dave Irvine, topped up by Reynolds. However missed tackles handed centre Sam Cappaert the hosts a third try with eight minutes left. Dudman’s successful kick left the city side needing a converted score to salvage a draw and they gave the ball width to send Ben Cooper over. Reynolds, however, missed a difficult conversion. Tenth-placed Canterbury welcome Barnes on Saturday. Canterbury:

Picture: Phillipa Hilton Canterbury’s David Irvine keeping a grip against Rochford