An impressive performance in the rain earned Canterbury a maximum return of five league points and helped to restore a reputation that had taken something of a battering the previous week.

Conditions were testing but the rugby produced by both sides defied the downpour and there were moments of real quality which lit up this National 2 South contest.

The city side set up victory with a controlled first half performance in which they scored three tries, leaving Taunton to find ways of making up a 19-point deficit. When they started the uphill climb they found a much improved home defence blocking their path.

It took Canterbury the best part of twenty minutes to put their game together, which was disappointing given that the pack quickly showed who was boss. Two early attacks ended with spilled passes, there was a lack of bite and it took a 17th minute penalty goal from Taunton’s Gary Kingdom to stir the pot.

Suddenly Canterbury woke up and within two minutes the city forwards had used their driving maul skills to pressurise the line and prop Ruairi McLeod peeled off to score. Scott Browne kicked the first of his three conversions and a revitalised team took charge.

The second try had its origins in a counter from full back Martyn Beaumont who collected a clearance kick and punched a hole down the left flank. Canterbury worked through another phase, spread the ball the width of the pitch and made an overlap for wing Ricky Mackintosh.

The creativity of the back division, always a step ahead of Taunton’s more limited bash it up approach, reached its peak five minutes before half time.

Superb handling and support, involving Beaumont, Browne and Tom Best was finished by hooker Tom Rogers who only had to trot behind the posts for the try. It would have been a good score on a dry day; in the wet it was a miracle.

The last act of the half was a cleanly struck penalty goal from Browne to put his side 22-3 ahead but there was work to do as Taunton came down the slope.

Last week the Canterbury defence had been slack at crucial times. Here they got stuck into the job, the forwards winning the collisions, the tackles flying in and the side still posing a threat in attack.

The intensity of the defenders forced Taunton into errors and when Best and Mackintosh hacked a dropped ball upfield Canterbury were in position to pounce again.

A marginal forward pass thwarted them on the left but, with the visitors down to 14 men after wing Aron Struminski was sin-binned, patience and the driving maul enabled Rogers to claim his second try and earn the bonus point.

The last 20 minutes saw the visitors enjoying more possession but, despite their energy and willingness to run the ball, seldom capable of cracking a Canterbury defensive line in which Best and fellow centre Alex Veale took no prisoners.

Lock Ben Turner did collect a late consolation try and Kingdom landed a good conversion, but the game was up for the Somerset men well before then.

Canterbury: M.Beaumont, R.Mackintosh (repl K.Asiedu), A.Veale, T.Best, M.Melford, S.Browne, D.Marshall (repl C.Tandy), R.McLeod (repl S.Goode), T.Rogers (repl R.McLeod), M.Pinnick (repl N.Wakefield), B.Massey, C.Hinkins, T.Sherson (repl J.Liston), P.Kelly, W.Baars.