Canterbury Rugby Club fly-half Frank Reynolds - National League 2 East’s top points scorer last season - has explained how he has improved his goal-kicking.

Reynolds offered 283 league points, largely off his boot, as they came seventh.

“I finished as the top points scorer in the league and that was good,” said Reynolds, who also added to his tally with a brace of tries over the campaign.

“When I first came to Canterbury, my goal-kicking percentage wasn’t great.

“But I’ve learnt quite a bit about goal-kicking in those two-and-a-bit or three years.

“You have got to enjoy rugby, enjoy goal-kicking and, if you enjoy it, naturally, your mind
rests. You’re not so tense because you’re enjoying it.

“By relaxing everything, your outcome percentage becomes a lot higher.

“You don’t think ‘What happens if I miss this?’ and ‘What happens if I don’t strike this ball well’ and ‘What happens if I don’t strike this ball well and it goes to the left?’.

“Because you’re enjoying it, your mind goes quiet. You only get a few years playing rugby in the grand scheme of things.

“On the back of that, effectively, my mind went quiet as I approached the ball - and so I
was striking the ball so much sweeter, and getting results out of it.

“I was getting a number of points, which helped towards the team.

“I think I must have finished around 85 percent with my goal-kicking by the end of the season.

“But going into this season, to build on that, there were maybe a few more cases where I could have taken the kick on.

“Last season, sometimes, maybe I was umming and erring whereas, this season, I think I’ll be more confident to take the kick.”

Playing rugby - even at part-time level - is a huge commitment for Reynolds and his team-mates.

He noted: “It’s quite a big sacrifice for everyone.

“It’s Tuesday and Thursday nights, it’s all of Saturday and there’s gym work around that.

“If you’re putting all that sacrifice in, you have got to enjoy it, otherwise you become quite miserable.”

When not on the rugby field, Reynolds is not shy of putting the hard graft in with his full-time job, either.

He explained: “I’m a dairy farmer.

“It just fits quite well. Rugby offers something completely different.”

Reynolds also praised Canterbury head coach Matt Corker - a former lock at Richmond and London Wasps.

“I think Corks is great,” he said. “He’s really good with detail and he knows the game inside and out.

“He has played so many times and his detail on certain aspects of the game - whether it be the line-out, whether it be rucks, whether it be tackling, whether it be defence - he’s really good with the small details.”

Canterbury have a strong youth-team system and also were able to give some players
their first taste of playing National League 2 East rugby last campaign.

Reynolds said: “The thing with Canterbury is that they have almost all of east Kent to pick from.

“They’re the top club in east Kent because a lot of them want to play for Canterbury. They have got a real scope for generating quality, young players who are local because they have got such a big catchment area.

“I think Taff (Gwilliam, director of rugby) loves that.

“If you go further west towards London, you have got a lot of competition between clubs that are all sort of around the same league.”

A strong second-team set-up is vital in creating a competitive first-team environment, as well, Canterbury Pilgrims winning Kent 1 during 2023/24 after a near-perfect season.

“The Pilgrims went and won most of their games,” said Reynolds. “That means they have got a good buy-in in the squad, which means there’s more numbers for training.

“When you can get 35 or 40 for training, it can make training really beneficial because you have got two teams absolutely going at it.

“For Canterbury’s first team doing well, having a strong second team is definitely fundamental.

“By the end of the season, we were well into using a lot of the second-team players anyway because of injuries and stuff like that, and that was really good.”

Canterbury conclude their three-game pre-season schedule at home to Blackheath tomorrow, kick-off at 7.30pm, before they start the league campaign next weekend.

Admission for their friendly fixture against Blackheath will be free.