Giles Hilton has hailed Canterbury Rugby Club’s 2024/25 campaign as their best-ever season.

The first team earned a fine fourth-placed National League 2 East finish - and there were also title triumphs for Canterbury’s other sides.

Canterbury Pilgrims, the club’s second string, made it back-to-back successes as they won the Kent 1 crown.

The 3rds claimed the Kent 4 title, too, with an ambitious new Canterbury RFC Academy in partnership with Archbishop’s School - led by head coach Matt Corker, head of player pathway Nathan Morris, as well as coaches Alice Hayward and Ella Jenkins - also starting in August.

Throw in ever-growing mini and youth numbers, progress in the women’s and girls’ section and the development of wheelchair and walking rugby, and it’s not a bad way for departing chairman Hilton to sign off.

He reflected: “I have described it as the best season ever for the club.

"That’s the way that I’ve described it in terms of, yes a fourth-placed finish for the first team, but the 2nds and 3rds winning their leagues.

“The fourth team - that was probably on the verge of collapse - is reinvigorated and being looked after well. The fifth team under dear old Colin Scurr is continuing to trundle along.

“Wheelchair rugby is continuing to survive, women’s rugby is going well, and our girls are beginning to gain a little bit of momentum.

“The continuing numbers joining us at mini and youth is just beyond belief. Then, there’s setting up the Academy.

“You couldn’t really have asked for a better season, could you?”

Key to Canterbury’s first-team progress in recent years has been the rise of some local and young talent, largely led by vice-captain Frank Reynolds.

The fly-half has finished as the top points scorer in the division two seasons in a row.

“That becomes our mantra to hold onto those players and provide a culture where people aren’t here today, gone tomorrow,” said Hilton. “Hopefully, they buy into it and they look at the success.

“We try and find them jobs and that then excites the local community and excites the sponsor part of the database.”

Many of them have been recruited by director of rugby Taff Gwilliam, appointed in summer 2023 after a long stay at Medway. Gwilliam also played his part in last year’s Bill Beaumont County Championship Division 1 title triumph.

Hilton said: “He’s got the confidence in those county players and that’s part of where we want to be. We want to be local and local can also be Kent.

“We want to offer that standard of rugby as wide as we possibly can, but with an understanding of exactly where we are.

“Kent winning the County Championship and him putting those teams together, and having that network of contacts within those teams and within those players, that’s massively important.”

A fourth-placed first-team finish also continues the upward trajectory since Corker replaced Andy Pratt in 2020.

“I think it’s been slow but sure progression,” said Hilton. “That gives you the stability.

“Bringing Taff Gwilliam in as director of rugby has helped Corks concentrate on that side of it because there’s a lot of off-the-field stuff now. He doesn’t have to worry about that.

“Rome classically wasn’t built in a day. It’s putting those solid foundations down to make sure that, if we’re lucky enough to make the next jump, that we can go up and be sustainable.

“You’ve only got to look at the fact that Esher have come down again this year, having been promoted last year. We’ve gone straight up, straight back down, and TJs (Tonbridge Juddians) have gone straight up and come back again before. Blackheath, admittedly, got relegated from there and they’ve sustained themselves.

“But four out of the five promotions from level four to level three, it’s seen the club that’s got promoted come straight back down again - and we can’t buy players.”

Numbers at first-team fixtures are on the rise at Merton Lane, with Hilton adding: “The last game of the season was 1,400 plus.

“But we’ve probably averaged over 600 people per game this year, which is a marked step up.”