Canterbury sparkled in the Devon sunshine as they ran in six tries on their way to this first league win of the season.

It was a morale lifting performance after the disappointment of the opening two weeks but the city side did not take complete control until the third quarter.  A burst of three tries in a fifteen minute spell then killed off the league newcomers.

It condemned Barnstaple to their third defeat in a row but their fighting spirit was rewarded with two late scores which earned a first point of the season.

That positive attitude saw the home side dominate the opening ten minutes and take the lead with a try from wing Linford Brock, converted by Jordan Petherbridge before Canterbury worked themselves into the game.

From the restart they discovered attacking territory for the first time and quickly made it count with a try from Number Eight Max Cantwell. The squeeze was gradually applied to the stubborn home defenders, who conceded two penalty goals to Martyn Beaumont before a patient build up ended in Sam Rogers grabbing the second try.

The conversion sawCanterbury into an eleven point lead at half time, the downside being that it should have been substantially more.

Their recent habit of ignoring gilt edged chances surfaced twice more as Harry Sayers’ shaky hands and Aiden Moss’s failure to deliver a final pass after slicing Barnstaple open cost them an early bonus point.

If that rankled the city side made up for it with that stunning second half display,

It started early, with smart work at the front of a lineout between Tom Burns and Tom Rogers opening the way for the hooker to touchdown.  There was a minor blip when Barnstaple’s Matt Hague poached a ball at the tail of a lineout and Petherbridge converted the try, but the city side lost no time in asserting their authority.

With the pack on the font foot, prop Sam Kenny powered over from short range and when the elusive Moss fielded a clearance kick he ran it back cleverly to make space for Sayers to score.

The full back scored the sixth try himself following a threatening back line move and neat work by Guy Hilton.

The game was now totally beyond the Devon men, who made a brave and defiant late surge with tries from Mark Perry and Ryan Carter, plus a Petherbridge conversion, but Beaumont crowned an emphatic victory with a simple penalty goal to add to his conversion of the Kenny try.

 

Canterbury: A.Moss, G.Hilton (repl D.Harris), J.Murray, W.Farris, H.Sayers, M.Beaumont, T.Best (repl K.Braithwaite), A.Cooper (repl C.Townley), T.Rogers (repl S.Rogers), S.Kenny, R.Cadman (repl E.Cohen), T.Burns, S.Rogers (repl F.Edwards) H.McCormick-Huston, M.Cantwell.