Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Pratt: Our best yet
CANTERBURY Rugby Club head coach Andy Pratt said Saturday’s epic win at title-chasing Hartpury College was the “high point of the season so far.”
The city club rallied against adversity and in-form opponents to record a rare away win and send a statement to National 2 South as they seek to close in on a top-six spot.
Canterbury came out for the second half trailing 26-0 and two players short but produced a superb display to snatch victory with a Tom Best penalty a minute from time.
Pratt said: “It wasn’t just that we were 26-0 down against a good side but we had two back-rows in the sin-bin at half-time and the physio was telling me Pete Kelly wasn’t fit to continue.
“We were in disarray. We had Sam Rogers, who’s usually a hooker, in the back row on his own. I was worrying about how we were going to keep them out, rather than how we were supposed to beat them with 13 players.” He added: “We managed to score twice and knew if we could just get the next try after
‘We knew if we could get the next try they
would panic’
that then they would panic and that’s what happened.
“I knew we were capable of getting a result against one of the top clubs but even so it’s not often you get results like this so we had to enjoy it. It was the high point of the season so far.”
Scrum- half Dave Marshall was named man-of-the-match, the first opposition player to earn the accolade at Hartpury in eight seasons and admitted: “I was pleased with that but it was a team effort.
“We played well enough with the ball in hand in the first half but we got a bit of a telling-off at half-time.
“We were told to go out and enjoy the game and play without pressure. We scored twice in the 10 minutes after half-time and got some belief.
“At home they were probably the best team we’ve played but once the third and fourth tries arrived, it was one-way traffic.”
On Saturday Canterbury visit Chinnor, looking to close the gap on their seventh-placed hosts to three points.
Canterbury won 21-20 against the Oxfordshire side at Merton Lane in September but the visitors came back from 21-0 down at the break and missed a last-minute conversion which would have won it. Pratt said: “Saturday was a pivotal game. The season could have gone one of two ways, hopefully the win means we’re looking up the table.”