University of East London 34 Canterbury CC 5

UEL’s men’s rugby squad ran out comfortable winners over Canterbury CC seconds in their opening BUCS Southern Eastern 4B Division match.

The rugby squad ran in six tries, three in either half, as they easily beat CC 34-5 on home soil.

Christian Bennison crossed over for the opening try after stepping inside the covering defence but the extras weren’t added.

UEL’s second try came through Sean Seeley after excellent wing-play by Dathan Terriss-Moses, who hit the deck before getting back up and delivering perfect off load to Seeley.

Sam Foster kicked the conversion before sloppy play from UEL allowed CC to reduce the arrears with a try from a counter attack.

An excellent driving maul helped the hosts add another try before the break as Sam Morgan was the benefiter and crossed over to make it 17-5 at the break.

The second half started slowly and neither side was able to add any points until 25 minutes had been played.

More good work from the pack enabled Tommy Middleton to peel left and grab UEL another try but the conversion was missed.

Bennison and Nas Salah combined brilliantly for the latter to go over and make it 27-5 and all but ensure the home side the points.

However, UEL still had time to grab one more try through Calum Gardener as he threw a dummy before running in for the final try of the match.

Bennison kicked the extras to make it a successful opening match for UEL and they sit second in the table ahead of next week’s game with UCL.

Rugby squad: Sam Morgan, Ben Smith, Akeem Lawal, Tommy Middleton, Sam Cook, Frank Sackey, Christian Bennison, Mo Akbar, Suzeet Gurung, Sam Foster, Dathan Terriss-Moses, Milo Johnson, Calum Gardner, Nas Salah, Sean Seeley, Auguste Cheminais, Arj Dauti.