Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Defence endure tough time
Canterbury’s inconsistent season goes on as they shipped six tries in a 32-10 National League 2 South loss at Dings Crusaders.
The good things about this performance were almost entirely limited to their work in defence, but a high tackle count took its toll as they ran out of steam in the second half.
In the face of a swirling wind they did a decent holding job before the interval and were a touch unlucky to be 10 points adrift at half-time.
Dings had to work hard before taking a 22nd-minute lead with a try from wing Tom Hargen, but Canterbury hit back swiftly as Danny Herriott completed a driving maul.
The city side continued to resist until a rare missed tackle set up Hugo Harbinson for Dings’ second try, and in final play of the half they got a third.
There was more than a suspicion of a forward pass before wing Tommy Foot slipped through the defence, but on the surface Canterbury had plenty of reasons to be pleased with the memory of the previous week’s second-half exploits against Rochford Hundred fresh in everyone’s thoughts.
It was Dings, however, who produced the best rugby in their determination to end a five-match losing streak. They were aggressive and incisive and scrum-half Tom Knight underlined their threat with a try from a quick tap penalty, converted by Rob Kirby.
Canterbury did make some headway midway through the half and after Crusaders’ No.8 Jake Holcombe was yellow-carded another driving maul ended in a Tristan King try.
But the wind dropped - so did the city side’s energy - and Dings made the final quarter their own.
With the city scrum under pressure the hosts put themselves out of sight with and excellent try from centre Matt Smith and, in the last act of the match, the sixth was scored by prop Ashley Challenger.
Canterbury’s task will be to quickly rediscover their confidence at Hinckley on Saturday.
Experience trumped youth when Canterbury 5ths beat UKC 2nds 51-12.
Canterbury started well as Julian Hunt scored the opening try, followed a few minutes later by Phil Cottrell powering his way over.
Not everything was going Canterbury’s way, though, and a missed tackle let the university side through for a converted try.
The reply was fairly swift, however, with Will Rayner touching down in the corner, before Jerome Weigh powered over, giving Kevin Stevens the easy conversion.
With half-time approaching, the university side scored out wide to reduce the city team’s lead to 10 points.
After the restart, a Clive Johnson try, followed by Pat Collins breaking through for a converted try, and Weigh claiming his second, sent Canterbury out of sight.
But there was a lot of fight left in this university side, and it was only Canterbury’s tackling, and ability to win the ball at critical moments, which kept their line safe.
Rob Paul dotted down next, as Stevens added the extra points for the city side, before Canterbury had a final flourish with Finn Roland finishing off a move out wide.