By Ian Lodge
On the hottest day of the year (September 10), Canterbury women visited St. Peter’s to take on their Thanet Wanderers RUFC counterpart in a pre-season friendly, played in 4 periods of 20 minutes.
With Canterbury having been relegated last year and Wanderers gaining a double promotion after last year’s league and cup double, Canterbury sit just one division above Wanderers and both sides were looking for a strong test.
Although both sides had ambitions to play an expansive game, up front was where the action happened with some solid collisions in midfield let by Ella Thurman-Newell. With the new tackle laws now in force, there were unfortunately a number of unpunished high shots which left a number of Wanderers players have to leave the pitch.
After the first two periods of 20 minutes, Canterbury led the game 12-0 with their more experienced players turning on the pressure to twice convert territory into points.
Alex White was leading her backs well and on two occasions got pacy full-back Jess Anderson away but was inexplicably called back both times for a forward pass and not releasing.
The second half with the heat intensity increasing saw a similar scoreline to the first with experience and pressure winning over a learning but inexperienced side. Canterbury added 2 more tries to finish the game at 22-0.
Wanderers have a week off due to a fixture cancelled by the opposition and then on 24th September have both the 1st and 2nd XVs playing at home. The 1st XV open their league campaign against Southend whilst the 2nd XV host Old Gravesendians.