Chinnor 8 Canterbury 43

A THUMPING victory is always the best antidote for an indifferent run of form and Canterbury duly revived their spirits by scoring seven tries against the league's bottom club.

After the tribulations of recent weeks, a nervous start was hardly welcome in a cold and murky corner of Oxfordshire but once the city club had worked that out of their system they played some entertaining and productive rugby.

It mostly came down to possession and, with the pack showing big improvements on recent dull performances, Canterbury had plenty to work with throughout the game.

A first half haul of 24 points was also assisted by Chinnor's attempts to slow down more mobile opponents.

Technical sins twice reduced them to 14 men, with yellow cards for prop Paddy Conlon and lock Matt Hutchings, and during their absence Andy Pratt and Gert De Kock ran in Canterbury's second and third tries.

By that time the city club's willingness to off-load in the tackle, rampaging play from restored flanker Mark Cullen and impressive Rob Keir, and incisive work by centre by Pat Sykes was making significant inroads in the home defence.

After surviving an early scare, when Chinnor's live wire backs orchestrated a swift counter attack, fly half De Kock squeezed in at the left corner for the opening try after 13 minutes. Six minutes later, following Conlon's exit, Pratt found himself with a much easier run-in.

That score was followed by a brief purple patch from Chinnor in which they managed to foul up a glaring try scoring opportunity but came away with the consolation prize of a penalty goal by Ben Hewitt. Hutchings, their captain, then left to spend ten minutes in the "cooler" and Canterbury immediately worked an overlap for De Kock's second try.

Any complacency that encouraged, however, was misplaced as Chinnor's best back, Gareth Duder, started and finished a great move which covered the length of the pitch before he scored.

Despite that minor lapse it was becoming clear Canterbury were in full control and before half time we were treated to a piece of grand larceny that forwards dream about.

Full back Wessel Wolmarans, joining his threequarters, headed for a gap and but was held and robbed of the ball.

What the defenders had not reckoned with were the poaching skills of Keir who then reached through the maul, retrieved the jewellery and strolled off for a try.

Chinnor rarely posed a serious threat in the second half and while Canterbury sometimes failed to put their possession to best use they still managed another three tries.

Mike Melford got the first, scooping up a loose ball to revive a faltering move; Pratt claimed his second after powering in from the blindside wing and, late in the game, the outstanding Keir finished off on the overlap.

Four conversions from Wolmarans pushed the total past the 40 mark for a Canterbury side that had gone some distance towards rediscovering itself.

Canterbury: W.Wolmarans, A.Pratt, N.Martin, P.Sykes, M.Melford, G.De Kock (repl D.Dorton), N.Woodbridge, M.Pinnick, M.Ford, C.Ambrose (repl J.Forsyth), R.Keir, A.Bernthal, C.Hinkins, M.Cullen (repl B.Smith), R.O'Gorman