Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Clash has a friendly twist
Canterbury head coach Matt Corker is looking forward to locking horns with a familiar face.
His Canterbury side visit Old Albanians, coached by former team-mate Dan George, this Saturday.
George and Corker played together at London Welsh, where Corker became captain and line-out coach.
Corker says it will be nice to get reacquainted with his old pal before the National 2 South fixture, with Old Albanians having beaten Henley 25-19 last weekend to get their campaign going.
He said: “We don’t have lots of footage of them but we have got footage from the game at the weekend. We have had a little look at that.
“We don’t want to give too much away but there’s areas we will be working on to make sure that we are prepared for them. They are a very established team that have been in the league for a long time.
“They have a good, young, coach that I was fortunate enough to play with while I was playing.
“We speak on the phone relatively regularly and Dan George is a great guy.
“I’m sure it’ll be a great game.”
Canterbury will hope to get their first league points on the board at the second attempt after their 30-22 loss at Bury St Edmunds last weekend.
Corker, who replaced Andy
Pratt last May as head coach, says there were positives to take from the match despite the defeat.
“There are lots of positives,” he said. “But I think what is important is that we don’t hide from the fact it was a very winnable game for us.
“Especially at half-time, we had put ourselves into a position where I feel we could have, and perhaps should have, won.
“In the second half, in terms of our speed around the pitch, it really showed that we had only been able to have one pre-season friendly because of Covid and cancellations, and those sorts of things have made this pre-season very different from any other.
“But in terms of the effort from the lads and some of the execution, it was exactly what we have been looking for.
“We are inches - not miles away from where we want to be. Those inches can be quite painful. That is the beauty of sport.
“But we know we are very close to the performances and results we are looking for.”
Tighthead prop Danny Herriott’s performance on his first start for the club also earned praise from Corker.
A youthful Canterbury Pilgrims team were beaten narrowly by Ashford 1sts on Saturday.
With 11 players making their senior debut, the Pilgrims trailed by 12 points at half-time but were muchimproved after the restart and even looked as though they might snatch a win.
The hosts took the lead after 10 minutes with a converted try and added a second try through a pushover.
Captain Joe Craig rallied his troops after the break and, although the Pilgrims were still denied space, Tom Halliday’s breakthrough score - converted by Dan Hill - gave them a real chance of victory but Ashford held on.
Canterbury 5ths drew 10-10 with Lordswood 2nds in a preseason friendly.
With both sides desperate to play their first game in 18 months, mistakes were inevitable.
Canterbury twice took the lead with tries in either half, but the visitors came back to earn a share of the spoils.