Rugby returns: Worthing Raiders beaten at Barnes

Raiders’ selection was hampered by a few pre-season injuries and the non-availability of dual-registered players.

New signings Tom Hatch, Will Hoare, Jackson Clark, Rob Ure and Joe Knight were all involved on a warm, dry afternoon on a firm pitch.

Raiders were quickly into their stride, scoring their first try after four minutes. From a scrum on their own 22m line Matt McLean fed the ball to Jack Forrest who made a clean break then passed to Curtis Barnes who outpaced the cover defence to touch down. McLean converted.

After ten minutes Barnes opened their account with a penalty but a few minutes later the visitors threatened, but knocked on.

The rest of the half belonged to Barnes, who scored four converted tries before half-time. Iago Davies replaced Kieran Leeming ten minutes before half time and Raiders continued to create chances. A bludgeoning run from Frank Taggart ended with him being held up over the line.

Being 31-7 down at the break, Raiders introduced Elliott Luke and Jackson Clark for the start of the second half.

There followed some shambolic play from both sides as neither could gain dominance.

After six minutes of the half Will Hoare was yellow-carded. But he home side were only able to add a penalty to their score.

Hoare returned and Joe Knight replaced Rob Ure.

From a scrum McLean sent the ball wide left to Curtis Barnes who returned it to McLean, who showed a clean pair of heels to the would be tacklers and scored wide on the left. He converted - 34-14.

Raiders finished strongly and scored the final points of the day when Jerome Rudder sprinted in from 30m to touch down. Maclean again converted.

With a good week of training and more players available for selection, Raiders head to Dorking on Saturday in good spirits.