CANTERBURY 42 DINGS CRUSADERS 15: Dings, badly depleted by injuries and unavailability, fell apart in the second half as they conceded four tries to a Canterbury side that took full advantage of some sloppy play.

Canterbury took the lead in the second minute with a soft try for prop Mark Livesey, who touched down in the corner unopposed after some very poor tackling from Dings.

Adam Westall hit back for Dings with a penalty two minutes later.

Both sets of backs looked dangerous but it was the home side who were next on the scoresheet with a penalty from debutant Australian stand-off Phillip Gibson.

Dings levelled the scores on 23 minutes with a try from centre Alex Dancer after a sweeping move from deep in the Dings half between centre Jack Gadd, fly-half Westall and full-back Orlando Stott. The conversion was missed.

After a string of penalties against Dings, Gibson restored the home side's lead with a penalty on 32 minutes, and this was closely followed by a try for Gibson after pressure on the Dings line.

Westall had a good chance to reduce the arrears with a penalty just before half-time, but his effort went wide to leave the interval score at 16-8 to Canterbury.

Although the first half had been pretty even, Dings began to creak early in the second half, with a series of unforced errors and aimless kicks gifting possession back to Canterbury.

Inevitably, the hosts took advantage and scrum-half Nick Woodbridge touched down for his side's third try after the Canterbury pack had driven over from a five-metre scrum. Gibson added the conversion.

Dings' cause was not helped when second-rower Gareth Lloyd was sin-binned in the 53rd minute.

With Lloyd off the field, Canterbury extended their lead when some poor tackling helped wing Carlton Littlechild to score a try in the right corner. That put the hosts 20 points clear, but the try was unconverted.

Dings hit back with a good try from wing George Watkins, following a neat, delayed pass by replacement scrum-half Steve Plummer. Westall converted to cut the gap to 28-15.

But, in the final 10 minutes, Dings managed to gift their opponents two tries. The first came when Westall's attempted chip over the defence was intercepted by flanker Peter Kelly, who ran in unopposed to score under the posts. Gibson converted, and then added the extras again when Rob Keir intercepted a pass from Plummer and scored, again under the posts.