Match preview – Canterbury 1st XV V Barnes

One of the league’s in-form sides come to the Marine Travel Ground and Barnes will provide a test of our resilience. A calf injury rules out Will Waddington so Charlie Kingsman takes the full back slot. Sam Rogers makes a welcome return to the squad after a long battle to regain fitness and is named among the replacements together with Tom Halliday. Head Coach Matt Corker writes: “We’ve had some tough Saturdays this season, where the score lines were not what we wanted but the Saturday result, regardless of the close margin was enormously disappointing. When I have reviewed the wins against Tonbridge, Worthing and Sevenoaks we look like a very different team when compared to the one who played Rochford, even though personnel are almost identical. Currently we thrive on the test that the teams above offer but we know that successful league campaigns are also about being able to win games that earn less attention. Credit must go to Rochford who won the physical battle. I will not share our missed tackle number as it is something we are all embarrassed by but it has given us a very simple focus for Barnes this weekend. Barnes have some powerful runners and play to those strengths, and we are very aware that this is something that we need to deal with. I have no doubt that all players that represent Canterbury are proud to wear the shirt, we as a group didn’t do it justice last week and Saturday is an opportunity for us to rectify that.”