By David Haigh

A poor first half proved costly as Canterbury suffered a 38-15 defeat against in-form Barnes in National League 2 East.

Conceding four tries before the break to one of the division's in-form sides left the hosts struggling for credibility, and although they lifted the tempo in the third quarter too many basic errors killed off their challenge.

The visitors went ahead after only three minutes as their backs exposed the Canterbury defence all too easily for Jordan Souter's try. A Frank Reynolds penalty goal pegged that back, but it took a confident Barnes only a minute to fashion a second try scored by wing Paul O'Dell.

A penalty gave the visitors the territory for a third score, this time a close-quarter finish as lock James Bloxham crashed over, and Simon Keller's second conversion pushed the lead to 16 points.

Canterbury did settle more at this stage and while they threatened little in attack the deficit looked manageable if they could hold on to half-time.

Those hopes were dashed, though, when Dave Irvine went to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on and the penalty conceded put Barnes where they wanted be. Hooker Alex March drove over, Keller converted and the bonus point was in the visitors' pocket.

How important that score became was highlighted when Canterbury engaged a higher gear after the break.

They played with pace and ambition, which paved the way for a good try by Guy Hilton, and going into the last 20 minutes forward pressure made another inroad with an Irvine try and a Reynolds conversion.

But all that effort was undermined by dropped passes and possession turned over in contact as Barnes reasserted control of the late stages with tries for Cameron Leigh and Chris Stegman, with Keller converting one of them.

The city side's woes were compounded by Sam Sterling's red card for an illegal tip tackle.

Canterbury, in 10th, host Bury St Edmunds on Saturday.

Canterbury: Kingsman, Hilton, Sterling, Hollidge (Halliday), Morgan, Reynolds, Cooper (Williams), Young, Morris (Macmillan), Lusher (Herriott), Irvine, Stephens, Furneaux, Murray (Rogers), Oliver.