Struggling Clifton pay for a lacklustre performance

CANTERBURY 51 CLIFTON 17: An excellent kicking display by home fly-half Phil Gibson, who was successful with all his nine attempts, was the highlight of Canterbury's best win of the season.

Gibson also scored a fine individual try at the start of the second half which took the game beyond the reach of Clifton by opening up a 15-point lead.

On the day Canterbury was the superior side with Clifton after their long journey, looking strangely out of sorts.

Clifton struggled to put together their normally efficient expansive game.

And they also found it difficult to come to terms with the differing interpretation of the laws by the visiting Italian referee. He in turn struggled to come to terms with the pace of the game and his decision making left the players of both sides mystified on more than one occasion.

Clifton had the wind behind them in the first half, but the home side almost scored straight from the kick off as Clifton failed to gather the ball in and only a loose pass prevented the home side from crossing the line and taking an early advantage.

In the third minute No 8 Cristoff Bloom crossed for a try which the referee awarded despite the obvious second movement with Gibson converting.

Clifton quickly struck back when centre Steve Leonard made a clean break to reach the line with fly-half John Barnes adding the extras.

Canterbury quickly exposed the visitors defence when a run by winger Carlton Littlechild took play to the visitors line and the ball was moved right with lock Rob Kier putting full back Kert De Kock in for a converted try.

Clifton then lay siege to the home line thanks to the driving play of their pack. They twice appeared to cross the line but were called back by the referee who ruled they had been held up.

Clifton were also awarded a string of penalties as their drives were illegally stopped . Eventually the referee produced a yellow card but no penalty try was forthcoming.

Finally, after a 10 minute siege No 8 John Levis scored as the Clifton pack shunted Canterbury over the line at a set scrum.

Clifton were dominating possession but struggled to make progress against a home defence who continually flirted with the offside line.

After the break Clifton quickly established control but a mistake gifted Canterbury the chance to counter-attack and Gibson was able to score and add the convestion.

Clifton threw caution to the wind as they began to play catch-up rugby and although dominating possession they made some silly errors.

From one of these winger Mike Metford seized on the ball on the halfway line to race over for a converted try.

Clifton gained their reward when they took play through their forwards to the right hand corner and scrum half Adam Jones went over.

They were now in sight of a try bonus point and they again threw caution to the wind as they went in search of the required try.

But handling errors and the extra sharpness of the home side resulted in Blom and replacement Will Alkin scoring further tries.