Canterbury will regret chances missed as they slipped to a third consecutive defeat.

Those lost opportunities may not have changed the end result but important bonus points were there for the taking and the city side missed out.

Cambridge, always the slicker outfit, were full value for their victory but Canterbury, showing heartening signs of improvement on the previous week’s poor showing, should have added to their three tries.

Their failure was rooted in a malfunctioning lineout, some crucial handling errors and missed tackles.

The first of those defensive lapses allowed the visitors go ahead with the game only one minute old. Full back James Stokes strolled over and converted his own try.

But Canterbury recovered from that poor start and might have scored twice in the space of five minutes.

Clever work by the backs put Mason Rosvall into space but his final pass ended up in Cambridge hands. When the big wing got a second, almost identical chance he did the business himself and made the touchdown.

All this early activity produced another try for Cambridge when flanker Brett Daynes went over after sustained pressure but the city side remained hugely competitive until deep into the second quarter.

They contained the visitors impressive pace, carried well and scrummaged solidly but two tries in as many minutes from a clinical Cambridge undermined all the good work. First there was an audacious dummy by scrum half Stefan Liebenberg and then an overlap created for prop Matt Worrall-Clare. Stokes converted both scores and from being well in contention Canterbury found themselves 21 points behind.

Lineout failures in prime attacking positions had come home to roost.

It was a long road back but the city side travelled it well for much of the second half half. They dominated territory, looked to attack and two well worked tries put them right back in the picture. The backs engineered a try for Aiden Moss, when the value of good lineout ball went rewarded, and Tom Best and Moss set up Rosvall’s second.

With one conversion the visitors lead was down to nine points and when James Rawlings was sin binned Canterbury might have profited. Instead slack tackling and the pace and footwork of visiting wing Mike Ayrton punctured slack defending and the last ten minutes became a search for a bonus point.

Canterbury had the territory and the opportunities but a spilled pass with the line open and yet another late lineout failure scuppered them.

 

Canterbury: M.Beaumont, C.Horey, A.Veale, W.Farris (repl A.Moss), M.Rosvall, T.Best, D.Smart (repl O.Best), I.Miljak (repl C.Townley), S.Rogers (repl N.Wakefield), A.Wake-Smith,R,Cadman, T,Burns, S.Nixon (repl T.Edwards), R.Ward G.Micans.