Head coach Matt Corker admits it’s crucial Canterbury Rugby Club swiftly rediscover top form.

They return to action at fourth-placed Oundle in National League 2 East on Saturday, November 8, after a welcome rest this weekend.

The ninth-placed city club head into the break on the back of successive league losses, going down 43-40 to Bury St Edmunds at Merton Lane on Saturday following their 43-31 reverse at Old Albanian.

There is enough of the campaign to go in order for Corker’s men to turn their season around, however, with two three-game blocks left before the new year.

“It’s very short,” said Corker. “We have got six games before Christmas and, ultimately, we can find ourselves in a very different part of the table by then.

“We will take it one weekend at a time. We will be performance-focused because that’s how we get results.

"It’s important, in the first one back, that we get back to winning ways straight away.

“But that will be no mean feat, travelling to Oundle.”

Canterbury made a great start with two tries in the first six minutes against Bury St Edmunds and reached half-time nine points in front.

They were unravelled by two quick Bury scores in the second half, though, and also had three players yellow-carded for technical offences.

Corker reflected: “We had a really good start.

"Going 14-0 up through some really good play, that put us into a strong position.

“Our defence has been really good this year but it wasn’t as strong on Saturday.

“In the second half, some of our execution wasn’t great.

"Scoring that amount of tries at home - backing up after scoring five tries away - there’s definitely some positives there. Some of it comes down to how we maintain pressure.

“We know Old Albanian and Bury are good teams.

"Bury have a really good scrum but there are a lot of positives to take.

“Even in our last play on Saturday, we had a scrum and I felt good about it. But the ball got turned over in the first phase.

“Although Bury are a good team, that was our game to win and we let them leave with five points.”

Canterbury did at least, again, not leave empty-handed as they picked up two bonus points.

Henry Kenny (2), Harvey Furneaux, Tom Williams, Eoin O’Donoghue, Jamie Stephens and Garry Jones dotted down.

“That’s a massive positive,” admitted Corker. “It’s a real turnaround.

"Getting two points, even though they’re in a defeat, is massive. But they’re silver linings.

“We only lost eight games all season last year and, already, we have lost four this year. We finished fourth last year and we want to do better than that if we possibly can this year.

“There are some green shoots. After a week off, we’re hoping some people will be back with the Pilgrims, pushing for first-team places.

“But it’s something I feel uncomfortable complaining about. It’s why we have got a big squad.

“I do think the break has come at the right time.”

Canterbury were back in training on Tuesday, although they will then be given some time off.

“We will definitely train on Tuesday,” he said.

“There’s things we need to iron out.

“But we will take Thursday and Saturday off. We have already played a lot of rugby.

“It’s important we get some recovery time in and come back refreshed.”