This was probably never going to be an easy game. Havant are still finding the new year league fixtures difficult at the moment, while Canterbury are taking some big scalps and gaining momentum. Carrying a few absentees, we were still not at full strength but on the balance of recent performances, the relative disposition probably wasn't going to affect the outcome. First half was a demonstration by Canterbury of the game played well, playing at pace and moving the ball to attack the space. They looked settled and confident, playing to the pace of the referee, while we were generally chasing the tempo and trying to establish a coherent defence in front of their next attack - needless to say the ref didn't always agree with our 'picture of the game' and we subsequently had a high number of early penalties awarded against us, giving away hard earned field position. That said, happily - it wasn't all one way and while the scoreline was mounting up (HT 0-30), we did generate some solid attacking phases, particularly when we could raise the speed of recycle and start to punch holes through their unsettled defensive line. The highlight of the first half was perhaps the Canterbury cross-field kick to score, where having isolated our fullback, they executed a simple cross field kick to catch and score - always nice to watch good rugby, this was skillfully executed and worthy of polite recognition!
Second half, Canterbury looked set to continue their attacking form, but we came back-out with a increased level of determination and dogged resilience - and to our credit we started to win some of the confrontations and secured more possession, enabling a greater level of attacking intent and field position. While we were obviously still on the end of a large losing score deficit, but our attitude was different and our body language more upbeat - when we could, we started to take the game to them - which started to pay dividends and certainly began to raise the home crowd hopes and expectations. That said - whatever we did, if it wasn't perfect, the opposition were always quick to counter. Canterbury continued to demonstrate their reactive ability to switch from Defence into Attack and when presented with the ball, were always quick to capitalise on any opportunity - looking for the the holes, spreading it wide or simply using their obvious strength and pace to exploit our scramble defence. The second half score rate was similar to the first half, but that said the loss of two players to yellow cards in the final 10 mins just created more space and made the defensive job even harder - offsetting the scoreline for our better second half performance.
So not too pretty to watch - once we had all witnessed the early exchanges, it was fairly obvious why Canterbury are taking scalps and sitting high in the league. My one overall observation was that we were playing against a side where all the players (tight five included) were clearly confident to run and pass the ball at pace and had the fitness and conditioning to be able to cover the attacking and defensive requirements - with a quick precise defensive reset, standard two-man tackles, support runners swamping any attacking breach of our defences and a real high intensity commitment defending their own Red Zone.
For an independent it would have been good to watch, for the home crowd hosting their sponsors - less so! We are clearly in a run of tough fixtures at the moment and next game will be no easier - I know the coaches will be asking the boys to dig deep to regroup, consolidate, refresh and put this run of performances behind them, lift themselves in time ready for the next challenge. Rugby is about playing with confidence and trusting the team outputs - our squad has clearly got potential, but we need to proactively play to our strengths and generate a whole game performance and be able to respond quicker when we do make mistakes rather than let the opposition back-in on the offensive. Re-focusing on the basics and refining the simple stuff, as Gatland would say 'being the best at the stuff that needs no talent!'. From my experience - Teams that can honestly assimilate the analysis from their losses are the ones who will learn and normally will become better, stronger and more coherent. It undoubtedly requires total commitment and will take some time to build the momentum again - but having watched this squad fight their way out of some tough situations over the years, I'm confident they will diligently be able to workout what needs to change. We obviously go again, next league game in 2 weeks (Tonbridge) with plenty of time for the reset ..but as ever there are still no easy games in this league.
Will Knight's thoughts after the game
"Obviously a really tough one to take. We were beaten by a very good team who enjoyed the fast pitch and took every opportunity presented to them. On the other hand we failed to do that and while there were some individual positives we were just not good enough today."