Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Victory comes at a cost
conversions, it was 24-12 at half-time but Canterbury faced, literally, an uphill task after the break.
They climbed the Redcliffian slope successfully early on and should have made better use of their territory.
When that did not happen and the yellow cards began to fly – two to Old Reds as well as Canterbury’s trio – the game broke up. Old Reds’ penalty try narrowed the gap to five points but Canterbury now earned top marks for their resilience in a difficult period.
They resisted all the heavy pressure and found their attacking instincts again.
It won them a penalty, which Best converted, and they soon set up camp on the home line.
It was replacement centre Farris who took a short pass to crash over, leaving Best an easy conversion and ensuring that victory went to the more accomplished side. Canterbury: C.kingsman, K.thompson, JJ Murray, T.best (repl W.farris), H.sayers, O.best, D.smart, J.green (repl T.little), T.rogers, S.kenny (repl A.cooper), L.whetton (repl R.cadman), M.cantwell (repl S.clark), S.rogers, S.roche Whitstable ran in six tries as they made a winning start to their Shepherd Neame Kent 2 season away to Bexley on Saturday. The same fixture finished in a 12-12 draw last season and skipper Ben Cliff says the opening-day victory is a sign of the progress made by the Blues. Cliff, in his third season as captain, said: “This is exactly the sort of game we would have drawn or lost last season but the team are a year older, we have a game plan which everyone knows from one to 15 and our execution is getting better. “We made it difficult for ourselves in the 10 minutes before and after halftime when we spilt a lot of ball but I don’t think there was ever any doubt that we weren’t going to win.” The Blues went into the game on the back just one pre-season game – a win over Thanet 3rds – but were rarely stretched. London-based Josh Booty – making what is likely to be a rare appearance – led the way with two tries and there was one each for Cliff, Marck Olive, Will Reid and James Garland. Andrew Huey added four conversions. Centre Luke Bowers received the man-of-the match vote from the Bexley team, while Joey Taggart, normally a prop, did well in the second row and second XV skipper Matt Guy had an excellent match. The one blemish on the afternoon was an injury to Garland, who faces up to six weeks out after dislocating his shoulder in an incident which also left him concussed. The Blues just misssed out promotion last season but Cliff says going up remains ”100%” their aim this year. They continue their campaign away to Dartford Valley on Saturday.