Will Waddington’s impact at Canterbury Rugby Club has been praised by head coach Matt Corker after he reached a major milestone.
The back earned his 100th appearance for the fourth-placed club in last Saturday’s 46-23 home National League 2 East defeat to leaders Tonbridge Juddians, having first played for the Merton Lane team in 2019.
“It’s a fantastic achievement for Wads,” said Corker. “He would have played more, had it not been for Covid.
“He had been playing for his local club and then just walked through our front door in 2019. He played National League 1 rugby that November and has gone from strength-to-strength since.
“He’s a fantastic leader and a real voice within our group.
“It’s a great achievement for Wads to get to 100 first-team games and, hopefully, there’s many more appearances to come from him.”
And Corker thinks the continued development of some of Canterbury’s longer-serving players has been integral behind the joy they have had this term.
He said: “As these players get better, year-on-year, the team – and just the whole club – benefits. Wads has been a key part of that.
“But there’s a lot of players like that and that’s why we’re having a really successful season.
“The aim will be to keep them for another year next season so that we can just keep growing.”
Canterbury were powerless as Judds marched to their latest victory despite tries from Frank Morgan and man-of-the-match Sam Rogers, alongside contributions from the boot of fly-half Frank Reynolds.
Corker reflected: “We knew the challenge that was in front of us. Tonbridge are in great form and have got a very good team.
“There’s still an element where we think that we should have done better on Saturday.
“In the second half, we sort of stepped up another gear and, at 25-16, if we had executed better, it could have been 25-23 and a very different game. But full credit to Tonbridge.
“Every time they entered our 22, seemingly, they got at least five points. We need to be ruthless, like they were.
“We need to stay humble about it but, going into the rest of this season, we now know where we need to be better – and that’s extremely valuable.”
Canterbury’s troubles were compounded by injuries to New Zealander full-back Kurt Heatherley and winger Harvey Young, which meant a reshuffle of the back division.
But Corker said: “It would be unfair for me to complain about injuries because it’s that time of the season where squads are stretched.
“But we had to call Tom Best up on the day of the game. Kurt has been in good form for us and Harvey Young had started the game really well on Saturday, as well.
“But Tom Best did well, especially in those circumstances, and Harvey Furneaux showed some really good touches.”
Corker’s team have a welcome fixture-free weekend before they visit second-placed Barnes on Saturday, March 1.
“We’re definitely ready for a break,” said the coach. “It’s been a long time.
“Even with the Worthing game that we travelled to, and didn’t play, we still had done a full week of training before. We can now rest, recover and look at what we want to focus on, going forward.
“We then go to Barnes the week after Saturday and they’re right up there in the table, as well. We have had some really tough times there so we know it won’t be easy.
“But there’s no way we want to lose three games in a row.”
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