Another successful away trip, as Mowden ground out a win against a dogged Canterbury RFC at their Marine Travel Ground HQ.

Although not a high scoring affair, the play at times was fast and frenetic, with both sides’ defences the stand out feature.

A strong wind was in Mowden’s favour in the first half, but after oranges, the wind faded and led to persistent fine rain.

The visitors were on the attack from the outset, pounding at the home line with a series of pick and drive attacks. However, some wrong options were taken by Mowden and that coupled with some strong, hard tackling defence from the hosts, negated any danger.

Perhaps against the run of play, Canterbury fashioned a break out of defence and before any meaningful possession was gained by them, they were ahead through the boot of their fly half Tom BEST after ten minutes, when Mowden were caught offside. ( 3 - 0)

It wasn’t long before Mowden took back the initiative from Canterbury, with skipper Ollie HODGSON leading the way after good work from his colleagues in the pack, dotting down near the posts. (3 – 5)

Warren SEALS added the wind assisted conversion. (3 – 7)

Taken aback by the breach, the home side were slow to recover, with flying wing Brandon ASHER-WOOD speeding in for Mowden’s second, (3 – 12), SEALS again converting. (3 – 14)

Canterbury did try to release the grip of the visitors, but unfortunately illegally, as just before the break, home hooker Tristan KING was sin-binned after successive infringements in the 5-metre zone were enough for the official.

As Mowden relentlessly tried to effect more pressure on the home line, perhaps another player from Canterbury should have suffered the same fate, as again the home side persistently infringed on their own line, but the referee seemed reluctant to sanction.

Similarly, unsighted officials failed to take action against home players for what appeared to be blatant high tackles and on one occasion, Mowden had a shout for a penalty try as a result, as wing Chris McTURK was cut down illegally in a chip and chase attack, only to be halted in his tracks by an extended forearm.

However, the officials can only give what they see and all three apparently hadn’t seen the whole of the World Wrestling Federation ‘clothes-line’ and only a penalty was the result.
Prior to the break, Warren SEALS added a penalty to cement Mowden’s first half dominance and they were full value for it at 3 – 17.

To continue momentum in the game, it was important for the visitors to continue where they left off before oranges. However, to be hyper-critical, this they failed to do, allowing Canterbury a sniff of a fight back which they duly took, buoyed by an excited and audible home crowd, desperate for a first win.

After seven minutes of the restart, Canterbury struck back after a penalty was kicked to the corner, deep into the visitor’s territory. From the resulting catch and drive, home No. 8 James STEPHENS powered over (8 – 17) and with Tom BEST converting, (10 – 17) a fight-back looked a possibility.

The fight-back looked more of a probability, when BEST added a penalty (13 – 17), with thirty minutes left in the contest.

However, no matter how the home side tried, they couldn’t add to that total and 9n the final ten minutes of the game, it was Mowden who looked the more likely to score, with two excellent breaks from hooker Joe DUFFY and another from replacement wing Aedan MOLONEY being hauled down by a desperate defence.

Mowden had enough game management experience on this day to see out the game, which catapulted them into the bronze medal position in National League One.