By David Haigh

Canterbury let a 23-point lead slip in a 44-35 National League 2 East defeat at home to Tonbridge Juddians.

An absorbing game produced 12 tries and Canterbury, after conceding an early score to Josh Grewcock, looked good when they rattled in four during the first half-hour.

With fly-half Charlie Kingsman converting the lot they seemed irresistible - but Judds had other ideas and turned up the power in the second half, leaving Canterbury head coach Matt Corker ruing the visitors' superior strength.

"I could not fault the effort the boys put in," he said. "But towards the end we were struggling physically and that was the difference."

Aiden Moss made all the running for Ben Cooper's opener and when an under-pressure Juddians lost Rob Louw to a yellow card they were punished with two scores in three minutes.

Tom Best joined a driving maul to touch down and in the 25th minute his switch of play and good handling paved the way for Will Waddington.

There was more to come as the fragile visitors were carved open again and Guy Hilton had the simplest of run-ins.

As a platform for victory this was as good as it gets, but before half-time the cracks appeared and the momentum swung to the visitors.

With former Canterbury man Harvey Young always a danger they had passed up earlier chances but now hit back with tries from forwards Luke Boon and Charlie Munnelly. With a couple of conversions from Tom White, Canterbury's lead was down to 11 points.

A lucky break early in the second half, when Kingsman's sliced drop goal attempt fell into the path of Moss, ended with Frank Morgan trotting under the posts, but from then on Juddians were a controlling force.

Now it was their turn to dominate possession, build the phases, win penalties and suck the life out of Canterbury and tries from Matteo Petrozzi, Duncan Tout and Young brought them within a point of a fading and injury-prone team.

The telling blow came four minutes from the end as wing Bryan Hotston was sent across the line and White converted.

To add to Canterbury's frustrations, White's late penalty goal denied them a second bonus point.

Canterbury travel to Westcliff this weekend while Tonbridge host Bury St Edmunds.

Canterbury: Moss, Hilton, Waddington, Best, Morgan, Kingsman, B Cooper, Young, Morris, Herriott, Irvine, Stephens, Andrews, Evans, Murray. Replacements: A Cooper, Lusher, Edwards, Sansbury, Calder.