Canterbury ended a run of four straight National 2 South defeats with a comprehensive 37-22 win over Shelford at Merton Lane on Saturday.

The city club remain in the bottom three but their energetic five-try performance suggested they might remain there for too long, with the only low-notes on the day a suspected broken leg for lock Tom Burns and a hand injury to prop Alex Wake-Smith.

An Ollie Best penalty put the hosts ahead early-on, though the visitors hit back with their powerful pack setting up a try for scrum-half Charlie Baker, converted by Steve Smith.

Canterbury rallied with three unanswered scores however, a break from scrum-half Dan Smart paved the way for a catch-and-drive lineout score from Tom Sherson, who added a similar score from another lineout drive soon after, and after the hosts had lost a man to the sin-bin, Martyn Beaumont and Alex Veale created a fine try for Mason Rosvall to make it 20-7.

Smith reduced the deficit with a penalty before the break - though two of his earlier attempts were off-target - and the visitors capitalised on Ruairi McLeod’s sin-binning after half-time to reduce the gap further with a try by Marius Andrijauskas.

The city club weathered the storm however and battled back with No8 George Micans pouncing on a mistake to secure a bonus point, with McLeod adding a fifth score soon after, following a Best penalty.

The last word went to Shelford with a Grant Anderson try, converted by Smith, but they could not secure a losing bonus point.