North Walsham 20, Worthing Raiders 34: Raiders bounce back to defeat newly-promoted side

Since the restructuring of the leagues this is now the longest away trip of the season for Raiders. Selection seems to be more problematic each week. For this fixture twenty players were unavailable, almost all due to injury. This situation necessitated six changes to last week’s squad. Tom Derrick, Harry Nelson, Jake Golding, Tom Sunray, Jonny Smith and Matt McLean were all drafted in to fill the gaps left by the injured players.

North Walsham won the toss and elected to play up the slope with the sun in the eyes of the visitors. Raiders kicked off to start the game and when the kick didn’t go ten metres, the home side had the first put in at the scrum on the centre spot. The home side put the ball in and the visitors’ pack demolished their scrum, however, the referee decided the dominant scrum should be penalised and so raiders conceded the first of ten penalties in the half.

Despite this Raiders were on the front foot in every facet of the game until after nine minutes from one of the above-mentioned penalties the home side took the lead with a shot at goal, 3-0. The home side relied entirely on big kicks down the field and catch and drives from the lineouts throughout the game to achieve any advantage over Raiders.

With ten minutes played Curtis Barnes returned one of these kicks from his own half of the field. Having made plenty of metres forward he released Liam Perkins who rampaged down the left flank, breaking several attempted tackles before passing inside to Elliott Luke who in turn moved the ball to Zach Carr to score the first try of the game for Raiders. Matt McLean added the extras to take the lead at 3-7.

The North Walsham restart kick failed to go ten metres and so Raiders had a scrum on the centre spot. From the scrum the visitors moved the ball to the left and Jack Forrest scored in the corner. The try was unconverted but the lead stretched to 3-12 for the visitors. With twenty minutes played Raiders had conceded six penalties and this had given the home side the chance to stay competitive with their catch and drive tactic. With twenty-two minutes gone one of these resulted in an unconverted try to bring the score to 8-12.

Two minutes later the home side were penalised when their chasing players were offside from a long kick up the field. Tom Bowen was quickly on hand to tap and go before the defence had chance to regroup. Although North Walsham managed to prevent a score during the next couple of phases of play, they were penalised at the ruck and quick as a flash, Will Rigelsford took a quick tap and despite several attempted tackles he dived in to score Raiders’ third try of the afternoon. Matt McLean added the extras to extend the lead to 8-19.

As the half was coming to a close the home side managed to score another catch and drive try after Elliott Luke had been yellow carded. With a successful conversion Raiders’ lead was reduced to only four points at 15-19. Half time score: North Walsham 15 Worthing Raiders 19

At the break Jackson Clark replaced Ethan Clarke in the front row. North Walsham restarted the game now playing down the slope. This was to be the longest half of the season, quite literally as it lasted just on fifty-four minutes. There were no hold ups for injuries but the referee issued several yellow cards and even more lectures to players that seemed more than was necessary in a game played in good spirit between the sides.

With two minutes played Raiders had a lineout on the North Walsham twenty-two metres line. There was an initial catch and drive followed by the ball being moved at pace across the back line, when it reached Curtis Barnes on the touch line, he fed the ball back inside to Harrison Sims to score the bonus point try wide on the left. The conversion was unsuccessful, but the visitors now had a nine-point lead at 15-24.

Jack Doorey-Palmer had joined the game during the yellow card period when a hooker was needed and at the end of the sin bin he stayed on and Tom Sunray came on to bring the side back up to full strength. The home side continued to kick penalties to touch in order to use their catch and drive tactics. This was an effective tactic but very predictable. Generally, the visitors’ defence was able to repel these attacks.

With eleven minutes gone Will Rigelsford made a spectacular break from a scrum on the halfway line which only just failed to produce another try.

In the eighteenth minute North Walsham received a yellow card, and in the nineteenth minutes the referee issued two more cards, one to each side, plus further lengthy lectures to players and captains. Raiders used all their bench to maintain the pace of their game and it was effective as they continually managed to mount serious attacks in the North Walsham half of the pitch.

Raiders’ pressure was rewarded with a penalty in front of the posts. With, as was thought only eight minutes left to play they elected to take a shot at goal to stretch the lead to twelve points. Matt Mclean popped the kick over and the travelling faithful could feel victory was almost complete.

The visitors continued to dominate play and demonstrated some excellent fifteen-man rugby before Jackson Clark crossed the line and Matt McLean converted to make the score 15-34 and put the result beyond doubt.

At this point the referee, touch judge and fourth official had a long conversation before deciding they had allowed a Raiders’ player to return early after his yellow card. The upshot was that they awarded a penalty to the home side on the halfway. Not sure why the visitors were punished for a clerical error by the officials but there was no argument over the decision.

With time up Raiders were awarded a penalty in their twenty-two. To end the game all that was needed was a tap and then kick the ball off the pitch, however, Will Rigelsford decided that all that was needed was to kick the ball off. So now Raiders had to complete a lineout and then kick it of the pitch. Naturally this situation didn’t happen. The ball was turned over, a penalty awarded to North Walsham and a kick to the corner resulted in a catch and drive try to the home side to complete the scoring for the afternoon and bring the game to a conclusion.

Full time score: North Walsham 20 Worthing Raiders 34

The game was never as entertaining as it might have been but another win away from home with a bonus point was all that Raiders could ask for. A couple of dozen Raiders’ supporters had made the long journey to see the game and would be able to enjoy their evening in Norfolk or their long drive home.

Referee: Katherine Ritchie

Scorers:

Tries: Carr, Forrest, Rigelsford, Sims, Clark,

Con: McLean x 3

Pen: McLean

Team: Ethan Clarke 2. Elliott Luke 3. Dan Sargent 18. Jamie Ure 5. Liam Perkins – Captain 6. Rob Ure 7. Jonny Smith 8. Zach Carr 9. Will Rigelsford 10. Matt McLean 11. Tom Derrick 12. Harrison Sims 13. Jack Forrest 14. Tom Bowen 15. Curtis Barnes

Bench: 16. Jack Doorey-Palmer 17. Jackson Clark 20. Harry Nelson 22. Jake Golding 23. Tom Sunray