National Two South

Canterbury 35

LYDNEY'S shortcomings were fully exposed by a well organised Canterbury side.

The overworked backs showed plenty of endeavour in defence but the forwards had a day to forget, especially in the line-outs.

There was also a distinct lack of aggression, something rarely said about a Lydney pack.

Canterbury were not foot perfect by any means, but always had the upper hand.

Lydney started promisingly enough and a great drive from the pack put pressure on the visitors.

Canterbury's Chris Hinkins was yellow carded, but despite kicks to the corner and attacking scrums, Lydney came away with nothing.

Canterbury took the lead with a Scott Browne penalty, then man of the match Peter Kelly scored the first of his three tries after some resolute Lydney defending initially kept the visitors out.

Unforced errors stopped Lydney from gaining momentum.

They were struck a hammer blow just before half-time when winger Mike Melford, who had seen little of the ball on the flank, tracked his midfield men and sprinted through a gap to the line. Browne's conversion made it 17-0 at the break.

The home crowd was finally given something to cheer when a powerful driving maul resulted in a try for Andy Jarrett, converted by Tony Wicks.

The boot of Browne allowed Canterbury to stay at arm's length and he knocked over two more penalties to make it 23-7.

By the final quarter Lydney were in disarray and unable to offer much attacking threat, apart from a few runs from deep positions by Tony Wicks and the odd Josh Innes break.

Ben Lewis and Matt Taylor both went to the sin-bin within five minutes of each other and Canterbury took advantage with two more tries from the hardworking Kelly, both converted by Browne.

Lydney: Tony Wicks, Chris Holder, Josh Innes, Lewis Beer, Alex Hall, Curtis Russell, Matt Williams, Ben Lewis, Jake Fields, Andy Jarrett, Jim McMahon,Dave Bennett, Pete Butcher, Matt Taylor (capt), Charlie Daniel. Reps (all used): Ryan Hall, Jason Graham, Luke Kell, Duncan Bell, Chris Farrell.