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The Canons made it back to back wins
Old Gravesendians 22-37 Canons
The Canons made it back to back wins and jumped up to 6th in the Counties 3 table with a dominant win away at Old Gravesendians.
The gradient of the pitch at OGs made the slope on the main pitch at the MTG look like a bowling green in comparison, and playing up the hill(/mountain) in the first half, the Canons knew that they were in for a battle before they would have the advantage themselves. OGs were the bigger and heavier side, and used their advantage immediately to power over from close range. A short while later, the Canons added their own points with a Henry Carruthers penalty to close the gap. As they started to play more freely, the Canons started to regularly work their way into the OGs half, and with 15 minutes gone, crossed the whitewash through Will Rayner. Carruthers added the extras as the Canons took a 3-point lead. OGs crossed for an unconverted try from a 5m scrum before the Canons regained the lead through a long-range penalty from 45m out by Josh Lamb – impressive, given the kick was up the hill. A well worked set play from an attacking scrum allowed Will Rayner to cross under the posts for his second try, before a response from OGs as they grabbed a third try down the right, but again failed to convert. Mark Stone crossed from a tap and go penalty to give the Canons a 25-17 lead at half time.
The second half started brightly, a superb interplay between forwards James Everatt, Freddie Philpott and Jake Forrest allowed the latter to crash through and secure a try scoring bonus point for the away side. For the next quarter, the game reached a period of stalemate, with both teams defending well and forcing errors from the opposition. It was only after some Henry Carruthers magic that the deadlock was broken. From a Canons lineout in their own 22, Carruthers spotted a gap in the defence and broke past 4 OGs defenders. After stepping the last defender, it looked as though he would go all the way, only for a last ditch tap tackle to deny him. From the floor, he offloaded to Kel Katta, who scored in the corner. OGs managed to score their own fourth try in the last play of the game for a try bonus, but the Canons had won the afternoon, bringing 5 points back to the MTG on Shorty’s funbus.
There were some superb performances during the match, including Henry Carruthers at fly half, and Jake Forrest at number 8, but the 2 players of the match go to Izaak Guck and Harry Crowley – both colts who were playing in their first game of senior rugby. Both stepped up and pushed the team forward, and helped to lay the platform for Canterbury to get the win.
The Canons have a break week, before back-to-back home games against Brockleians and Gravesend 2s. Having lost in the last play of the game against Brockleians earlier in the season, the Canons will be looking to maintain their form to seek revenge and make it a hat trick of consecutive wins.