Canterbury knew that this game was going to be tough against National 2 East’s undefeated leaders but Head Coach Matt Corker had prepared the team well and felt that his squad could get a result.

When Oundle went ahead early on, with on of three of their customary catch and drive tries by ex-Canterbury player Shay Kerry, things looked ominous.  However Canterbury took hold of the game and, after prolonged encampment in the Oundle 22, Owain Collins executed a clever chip and chase only to be brought down inches from the line.

New boy Riley Burden was at the base of the resulting ruck to collect and drive over and, with a Collins conversion,  the visitors were 7-5 up after 15 minutes.

A further Collins penalty pit Corker’s 10-5 up only to be cancelled out by another Oundle catch and drive score just before half time With both Oundle’s tries going unconverted  the sides went into the shed at half time level at 10 apiece..

The city side had enjoyed the better of the spoils  and probably should have been further ahead but the signs looked promising for the second half.

Unfortunately, this was not to be as Oundle produced a purple patch just after half time with three tries, two scored and converted by centre Calnan, and another catch and drive from hooker Snelling while Canterbury’s Will Waddington was sitting in the sin bin for 10 minutes after an earlier infringement.

At 31-10 the game now looked lost but fresh blood from the bench, with Garry Jones making his return and Stan Bull on debut, paid dividends. From a line-out in the Oundle 22 area a well-rehearsed move gave Riley Burden a brace for the afternoon.

That try was closely followed by a break from Jones with a chip ahead collected by Olly Ashley-Jones and Collins conversion brought the score to 31-22.The possibility of a Canterbury comeback, however, was cancelled out in the last play of  the game when Oundle’s Sleightholme chipped ahead to dot down wide.

Canterbury can take many positives from this game with nearly half of the team being pathway players, not something that their opposition readily promotes and, with two games at the Marine Travel Ground to come, Matt Corker can look forward to getting his young team back to winning ways.

Canterbury: G.Roberts, M.Campbell, R.Thomas, W.Waddington, O.Ashley-Jones, O.Collins, P.Farrance, C.Macmillan, S.Rogers, O.Frostick, J.De Vries, J.Stephens, R.Burden, G.Trapp, M.McCormack.

Replacements: J.Dengate, D.Huntley, G.Jones, T.Wiliam,  S.Bull.

Pictures supplied by Phillipa Hilton.