Canterbury will be grateful that next Saturday is a blank date and gives them a fortnight to recover from this biggest battering of the season.

Overpowered, both physically and technically by promotion chasing Albanians, they will need every minute of that time to get over the shock.

The city side, who reached half time only eleven points behind after edging their way back into the game, were then hammered by an eight try blast and by the end Albanians were doing much as they pleased as they ripped through a feeble defence.

After their success in Cornwall the previous week, Canterbury went into this game with hopes of earning valuable points despite losing four of that winning side to illness and injury.  They were quickly made to feel the size of their task as Albanians, prompted cleverly by veteran player/coach James Shanahan, raced into a 21-point lead.

Tries came from Will Johnson (2) and Charlie Hughes, all converted by Mike Gallagher, as Albanians punched holes in midfield and Canterbury gave them every encouragement with a catalogue of unforced errors.

It took an opportunist moment from wing Guy Hilton to get the city side moving, his interception and pace bringing a try seven minutes before the interval.  Tom Best converted and when Albanian skipper Johnson was yellow carded Best landed the penalty to raise his side’s hopes further.

A score early in the second half was needed early to give the city side momentum and they made an attacking start, only to ruin it through their own profligacy.

A wild pass was pounced on by the home side and, unlike Canterbury, they were clinical in their use of the ball.  It ended in a try for wing James Spiers and before Johnson returned from the sin bin they claimed another by scrum half Morgan Thompson. Gallagher’s conversion pushed the lead past 20 points and the heart went out of the city men.

Albanians, a club who benefit enormously from their association with Saracens, showed their class as they brushed aside defenders with speed, precision and floods of support.

When Canterbury did have the ball they occasionally looked promising but were still too prone to basic errors and a yellow card for prop Jim Green did nothing to restore confidence. Albanians had cruised to the 45 point mark before they a found a brief response, a break from deep sending Dan Winchester clear.  When the centre’s legs failed him he threw a bouncing pass to the hard working Dan Smart who scored at the corner.

Ollie Best converted from wide out but it was a small gesture as the home side, making the most of their aggression and couple of kind bounces, stacked up the tries. Spiers and the outstanding Johnson completed hat tricks, Johannes Lombaard, Nick Foster and Mike Allan joined the list and Gallagher knocked over another four conversions to bury shell shocked Canterbury.

Canterbury: O. Best (repl M.Rosvall), H.Sayers, C.Horey, T.Best (repl O.Best) G.Hilton (repl D.Winchester), M.Beaumont, D.Smart, J.Green, S.Rogers, S.Kenny, (repl A.Wake-Smith), R.Cadman (repl R.Corr), T.Burns, S.Nixon, J.Shaw (repl N.Wakefield), G.Micans