Canterbury suffered their fifth straight defeat and sixth in seven games but put in a brave performance before falling to unbeaten National 2 South leaders Henley 46-31 on Saturday.

The city club recovered well from a nightmare start, which saw them fall two tries behind in the opening three minutes, to record a deserved bonus point, running in five tries.

The hosts' fluid running style threatened to overpower Canterbury but the visitors edged their way back into the game when Tom Best's kick sent Ricky Mackintosh away down the right and although he was stopped, an inside pass to Tom Sherson created a try out wide on 14 minutes, which was converted by Best.

The devastating Henley backs burst through for a third try but the boot of Best once again freed Mackintosh to race to the line, with fly-half Best once again slotting the extras.

Henley responded with three scores either side of the break but the Canterbury pack forced a series of penalties before Wim Baars completed a catch and drive for the city club's third try.

Hooker Tom Rogers was sin-binned for Canterbury and Henley added a try from a rolling maul to make it 41-19.

However, the visitors replied with fine tries from Martyn Beaumont and David Devlin-Jones to cut the deficit to 10 points.

Canterbury pressed for another score to secure a second bonus point but it was the hosts who had the final word with the final try.