Canterbury 5th v UKC 2nds

CANTERBURY 51pts UKC 2nds 12pts

This was the game that experience triumphed over a young athletic side, while the university had the speed the city had the technique to suppress the fiery student pack. First, it was Canterbury scrum near the university line that gave Julian Hunt the chance to break through for the opening try, followed a few minutes later by a quickly taken penalty setting up a maul for Phil Cottrell to power his way over. Not everything was going Canterbury’s way a missed tackle let the university slide through the defense to go under the post for a converted try, the reply was fairly swift with Will Rayner stretching his legs touching down in the corner, followed by Jerome Weigh powering over from short range giving Kevin Stevens the easy conversion. With halftime approaching the university had the last word with quickly taken penalty scoring out wide to reduce the city’s halftime lead to just ten points.

The second half asked the question could the Zingari keep up this furious pace, but with a Clive Johnson try followed by Pat Collins breaking through for a converted try, and Jerome Weigh claiming his second the city side looked almost out of sight. However, there was a lot of fight left in this University side, it was only Canterbury’s tackling, and ability to win the ball at the critical moments kept their line safe for the next twenty minutes. This famine was only broken by a terrible defensive mix-up on the university’s line giving a sharp Rob Paul the chance to snatch the touch down, and Stevens to add the extra points. Canterbury had a final flourish with Finn Roland finishing off a move out wide for the last play of the match and despite the overwhelming score line one of their most competitive matches of the season.