Canterbury’s comeback silences a record crowd

By PAUL MORSE

North Walsham…..22

Canterbury…………..38

A RECORD crowd saw Canterbury come from behind at half-time to run out worthy winners over newly promoted North Walsham Vikings.

An attendance of 1,050 at Scottow Park watched as the visitors outscored their hosts by six tries to three.

The home side took the lead after six minutes through a Frank Scott try converted by Matt Hodgson.

Tom Best reduced the deficit ten minutes later with a try.

For the rest of the half, defences reigned supreme, with scoring opportunities few and far between.

Just after the half hour, Matt Hodgson kicked a 40-metre penalty to give the Vikings a 10-5 half-time lead, which reflected the balance of play.

Canterbury looked a different side after the break, upping the pace and showing good handling skills to score four tries in the first 20 minutes.

A minute into the half, Best got his second and, ten minutes later, Nathan Morris was driven over from a line-out.

Then Charlie Kingsman and Ben Cooper scored in the 55th and 60th minutes. Frank Reynolds converted the first two and Best the fourth to make it 31-10 with a quarter of the game left.

The Vikings stemmed the flow and began to put together some promising attacks and it was no surprise when, with ten minutes left, Will Hodgson stormed over for a try, brother Matt converting.

Guy Hilton, though, soon added another try for Canterbury, Best converting.

Finally, with two minutes left, after some stout defence by the visitors, Ethan Sikorski scored from a driving maul following a five-metre line-out.