Canterbury Rugby Club booked their place back in the National League 2 with an emphatic 60-15 win at Luton at the weekend.

The victory secured the Championship title and secured the promotion they have coveted since losing their place among England’s top seventy clubs twelve months ago.

Captain Peter Kelly led the ten-try rout with a hat trick in a first half which saw the city club fall behind in the opening minute but gradually impose their authority before producing rugby of power and panache.

There were few hints in the first twenty minutes of the carnage to come.  Canterbury seemed intent on playing the entertaining stuff before they had laid the foundations and kept Luton interested by gifting them two interception tries.

Wings Tesh Edwards, in that first minute, and Alex Sutherland accepted their chances with alacrity and a penalty goal and conversion from Aidan Kenny kept the home side tugging at the city club’s coat tails.

The Edwards score was quickly rubbed out after strong running from wing Ricky Mackintosh was the prelude to tries for both Kelly and Wim Baars.   However, it was not until the city side concentrated their efforts around the work of their excellent pack that they started to make real inroads.

The forwards have been the engine of much of this season’s success and Luton were soon feeling the heat in the set scrums.

It was their other speciality, however, a thundering catch and drive from a line out which brought Canterbury’s third try and marked a turning point which dented Luton’s self belief.

They were rolled back fifteen metres before Kelly made the touchdown and in the fortieth minute he struck again. This time it was the scrummagers who did the damage from close range as they motored the home eight off their own ball and the captain did the rest.

Martyn Beaumont kicked the second of his five conversions and Canterbury went into half time with a bonus point, all the momentum and the title in their sights.

Three tries in the first fifteen minutes of the new half then saw the champions label tied firmly round their necks as they tore up the last shreds of opposition.

Beaumont’s superb broken field running set up a try for Mackintosh and a couple of minutes later the wingman made his own punishing break from which flanker Max Cantwell darted through a blind side gap.

Scrum half Dave Marshall scattered defenders to register the seventh try and already the celebrations on the touchline were under way.   From that point it was almost exhibition stuff as Beaumont’s pace and elusiveness proved too much for a luckless Luton now depleted by injury.

They watched helplessly as the full back raced in for two more tries but the referee spared them the ordeal of any stoppage time. Not, however, before dazzling handling by the backs had sent Juan Del Val through for the final try to set the seal on an impressive Canterbury triumph.

Canterbury: M.Beaumont, R.Mackintosh, J.Del Val, P.Brown, N.Woodbridge, T.Best (repl W.Hilton), D.Marshall, J.Green (repl M.Livesey), T.Rogers (repl S.Rogers), S.Goode, B.Massey, C.Hinkins, M.Cantwell, P.Kelly, W.Baars.