A careless and error prone Canterbury allowed their recent mini-revival to be derailed as fellow strugglers Worthing climbed above them in the tight battle at the wrong end of the league table.

The city club claimed a bonus point but skipper Martyn Beaumont was in no mood for excuses. He summed up the defeat this way: ‘Too many egos thinking the game was already won before we turned up.”

To hand Worthing a seventeen point start in a match of this importance hardly inspired confidence and, significantly, that was the final margin of Canterbury’s defeat.

But a sudden burst of three tries, following a yellow card for Raiders’ Kiba Richards, lifted the city side back into the game and with only two points between the sides at half time there was room for optimism.

The second half, however, went badly from the first whistle and a lack of real dynamism and focus, together with unforced errors, undermined the chances of victory.

The early stages were not pretty.  A missed tackle and a messed up lineout presented tries to Raiders George Montgomery and Liam Perkins, with Montgomery adding the conversions and a penalty goal.

When Richards copped his ten minutes in the sin-bin for a mistimed tackle on the airborne Ollie Best the home side were still comfortably placed, but Canterbury made them pay in spectacular fashion.  First they worked space for Best to squeeze over at the corner and brother Tom land a good conversion.

Tom next made a decisive break in mid-field before handing on to Martyn Beaumont to score before the skipper produced his own brand of magic, carving unseen gaps in the defence on his way to the line.  With a Best conversion Canterbury had won the lead in the space of eight minutes.

They lost it before half time to a controversial try by Worthing wing Alex Nielsen who appeared to hit touchline and goal line simultaneously.  Many referees would not have awarded the score, but this one did.

Canterbury quickly found trouble after the break.  From the kick-off Sam Rogers was yellow carded for an alleged illegal tackle and Richards took his revenge with a converted try which put his side ten points clear.

Breaking down a solid, if unspectacular Worthing then proved difficult until nine minutes from the end when Mason Rosvall struck from deep, gathering his own chip ahead and racing away for a try which put the game back in the balance .

However, that good work was undone in the closing minutes when Canterbury conceded twice. They gifted Raiders the ball to give Jamie Arthur an easy passage and the home side finished the job with a sixth try from Dan Sargent on the end of a rumbling maul, converted by Montgomery.

In a contest high on excitement but fairly low on quality, Raiders work at the breakdown and direct ball carrying were the foundations of a deserved victory, areas where more city men needed to follow George Micans’ fine example.

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