Dings Beaten At Canterbury

DINGS were downed 40-18 against Canterbury at Marine Travel Ground. Fly-half Harvey Young inspired Canterbury to victory, scoring 13 points including a fine solo try in an impressive display. Crusaders were well in the contest on the hour mark, but fell away in the closing stages, making too many mistakes as they tried to chase the game.

Canterbury opened the scoring through Aaron Cooper, with Young's conversion giving the Kent side a 7-0 lead inside eight minutes. But a Jake Holcombe try plus a penalty by fly-half Ben Bolster nudged the visitors 8-7 ahead on 25 minutes. Dings were forced into a reshuffle when influential full-back Luke Arscott was forced to leave the action with a knee injury, and Canterbury took advantage.

Ollie Best and JJ Murray both crossed for tries converted by Young, but Bolster added his second penalty to make it 21-11 to Canterbury at the break. Young's solo converted try came swiftly in the second-half with Dings prop Ash Challenger crashing over for a converted effort to make it 28-18 on the hour mark. But that's as good as it got for Crusaders, as the home side made the most of some errors by the visitors to score two late tries from Murray and Aiden Moss to secure the bonus-point victory.