Match Preview – Tonbridge Juddians V Canterbury 1st XV

Tonbridge Juddians v Canterbury

This was the game that should have been the pre-Christmas ‘derby’ but the weather intervened. After last week’s low key performance, there are changes to the squad. Injury and work commitments rule out Tyler Oliver and Tom Best but there is a return for centre Sam Sterling who has recovered from the bug that has affected a number of the senior squad.    Long term injury absentee Charlie Kingsman makes the replacements bench, ironically against the same opposition when he sustained serious thumb damage.

Head Coach Matt Corker writes: “One of the reasons I love rugby is because regardless of how complicated we make it, in essence, it is a simple game. Last week we did not match Dorking physically so we conceded 50 points. The game is great at giving you simple feedback. We are a proud team, representing a proud club and we know we have a responsibility to do the shirt justice every time we have the privilege of putting it on. During the Covid season, we produced a statement of why we play at Canterbury RFC, and the reason that we all collectively come to Canterbury is because we are “Creating an Environment to be proud of”. I believe this to be true and if we want to be an environment to be proud of we need to show how much it means to us to be a part of that.

“The shining light from the weekend was the Pilgrims win against Sevenoaks. A great performance in an entertaining game takes them to the top of the league for the first time this season. They have a good run of games ahead with some big clashes on the horizon as we enter the business end of the season.”