Canterbury 34 Sevenoaks 21: National League 2 East match report

By David Haigh

Canterbury ended their league National League 2 East campaign on a high with a bonus-point 34-21 victory over Sevenoaks.

The win sealed a seventh-place finish in front of more than 600 supporters - the biggest crowd of the season - who watched the city club take charge of the first half, ride out a Sevenoaks challenge in the final quarter and send their Kent rivals home empty handed.

Three of Canterbury's four tries came in the first 40 minutes and it was the back division that brought a touch of flair to all of them.

Frank Morgan got the first after only seven minutes, the centre cantering under the posts when wing Alfie Orris carved out a gap.

A sin-binning for flanker Harvey Furneaux might have put a damper his side's ambitions, but not a bit of it and they scored again when a great turnover by Tom Mackenzie forced a scrum on the Oaks' 22-metre line and scrum-half Presley Farrance sold the sweetest of dummies to the visitors’ back row before sprinting over.

Sevenoaks hard hardly been seen as an attacking threat but five minutes before the break took their chance when Canterbury lost possession and a loose ball gave them field position. They forced a five-metre scrum then mounted a series of close-range drives before Matt McCrae crashed over and Ben Adams converted.

That lapse stung Canterbury into the swiftest of replies as they won the ball at the restart, launched the backs and it was Morgan's show and go that brought him a second try. The league's top points scorer, Frank Reynolds, landed his third conversion and in the final minute of the half added a penalty goal to open up a 24-7 lead.

Things got even better just three minutes after the break when the city backs ran the ball from deep, put Orris