Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Canterbury turn the screw
Worthing’s indiscipline played a significant part in this decisive Canterbury victory in National 2 South, writes David Haigh.
Visiting full- back David Mcilwaine was sent off early in the second half and the city side exploited their advantage ruthlessly to pile up another 40 points.
When Charlie Kingsman was felled by a swinging arm in a last-ditch effort to stop him scoring, Worthing were two points ahead and well in contention.
That red card cost them not only a penalty try but also the daunting prospect of playing a man short for another 34 minutes.
It proved well beyond them as the Canterbury pack became increasingly dominant and Worthing could not plug the gaps.
The Sussex side did take home a losing bonus point with a try in the final minute but it was small consolation after they edged a first half in which all the scoring came in the opening 20 minutes.
That spell brought two tries for both sides, with wing Jack Maslen crossing twice for the visitors and the city club finding immediate responses through Harry Sayers’ overlap try and a powerful catch-and-drive score from prop Aaron Cooper.
Matt Mcclean’s conversion was all that separated the teams at the interval but Canterbury, who lost both Aiden Moss and skipper Max Cantwell to injuries, had not been entirely convincing.
However, they started the second half in positive fashion and full-back Kingsman’s clever running was about to push them into the lead when the game changing incident happened.
They followed that up with a bonus-point try from scrum-half Kyan Braithwaite who weaved his way through after the city side pounced on a handling error.
But if Worthing were stretched in defence, their attacking instincts never deserted them and they briefly came back into the mix when flanker John Dawe’s kick ahead saw centre Kieran Leeming beat Royce Cadman to the touch down.
Mcclean added his second conversion but that was the end of their flickering hopes.
Canterbury won the ball at the restart and a minute later had created the space for another try by the front row union – this time Jimmy Green – and Ollie Best slotted the goal from wide out.
The last quarter was all Canterbury as Worthing’s scrum disintegrated and conceded a second penalty try.
Kingsman got sweet revenge with the seventh and when the visitors were stripped of the ball, Seb Clark broke from deep before Sayers was given a clear run-in.
Best added a couple more conversions and Mclean was on target when Jamie Redmayne grabbed that late consolation for the Sussex side. Canterbury: C.kingsman, A.moss (repl B.howard), T.best, W.farris, H.sayers, O.best, K.braithwaite (repl D.smart), J.green (repl A.cooper), J.otto (repl T.rogers), A.cooper (repl S.kenny), R.cadman, M.corker, J.stephens, S.clark, M.cantwell (repl L.woodbridge).
New wingman Dom Barnaby collected a hat-trick of tries as Canterbury Pilgrims secured a 44-35 victory against the odds away to Old Albanians 2nds.
Featuring four debutants Pilgrims were, at one stage, reduced to 13 after being shown two yellow cards but it was a massive defensive effort by the side when they were short handed that saw them through.
Barnaby sprinted over inside the first two minutes which, with Will Hilton’s conversion, gave Canterbury an ideal start.
However, it did not last and OAS led through two converted tries before Pilgrims got back on track.
Hilton’s run and Barnaby’s pace brought them level, before some great handling saw the lead restored through Simon Jaynes’ try. Hilton, who added the extras to the Barnaby touchdown, then stretched his side further ahead with two penalty goals.
But a poor kick was punished as OAS hit back with a seven pointer.
By half-time a fourth try, this time for Frank Morgan and converted by Hilton, gave the city side an 11-point advantage but in the second half the sin binnings of Morgan and Ross Howard threatened to undo all the good work. The home side punished those decisions with a converted try but the Pilgrims’ defence weathered the storm superbly before tries by another debutant, Ollie Roberts and Barnaby, the last converted by Hilton, sealed the win.
Canterbury 3rds kicked up a gear in their eighth game of the season, racing away to a 68-24 home victory over Dover 2nds.
Dover grabbed the game’s first try but Canterbury quickly responded, with Alec Morisson finding a gap deep in his own half before freeing Ollie Simpson with an offload.
Simpson in turn fed the ball back to Jack Waite who sprinted over from 40 metres out.
It was this try that set the tone for much of the game.
Simpson soon followed up with two tries on the left wing, before Andre Allen put his foot to the floor for a long-range effort on the right.
Sam Payne added another before half- time with some elusive running.
The second half was disrupted by a Canterbury yellow card and a serious injury to a Dover player and the result was a disjointed 40 minutes.
Dover got two more tries but Canterbury’s pace and handling saw them finish strongly.
Brad Allchurch took a tap and go and ran 60 metres to score before anyone even noticed and further scores were claimed by Simpson, Sam Payne, Allchurch again and Mark Guest.