Cambridge 95 Canterbury 7

An under-strength Canterbury side suffered a heavy defeat at Cambridge in the National Trophy third round.

The game wasn’t as one-sided as the scorelines suggests with only the superb offloading and the excellent attacking lines taken by Cambridge being the real differences between the sides.

Canterbury, ravaged by injuries and wishing to conserve some of their squad for league duty next Saturday, began with a much reduced side. Several of their players were making their debuts in the first team squad.

They were so weakened that with four of the regular front row out of action, Matt Pinnick had to be on the subs bench despite his eight stitches picked up last week. Skipper Chris Hinkins with Sykes, Pratt, Allnutt, Marshall, Livesey, Rogers, Goode, Keir, Blom, Birnage and Pinnick were, for one injury or another, unavailable for what would always be a monumental task even with a full strength squad.

Canterbury gave a 100 per cent performance, but it was just not good enough to master the class of their opponents.