Worthing Raiders almost blow 21-0 lead at Sevenoaks - but hold on for another vital National two east win

Another win on the road puts Raiders in fifth place in the league. This performance was certainly a bit rusty after the five-week layoff but with so many home games to play it puts Raiders in an excellent position to challenge the top sides in the league.

Many thanks went to the large number of Raiders’ supporters who travelled to cheer the side on.

This was game 13 of the season, the halfway point, but it was Raiders’ eighth away fixture.

From September to Christmas they had only played five games at home. It’s an interesting statistic which makes their league position quite an achievement at this point in the season.

Despite a long lay-off the injury list still totals 20 players. Selection showed eight changes from the Raiders team that last took the field against Westcliff on December 3.

Coming into the squad were Dan Sargent, Will Hoare, Zach Carr, Curtis Barnes, Elliott Luke, Ethan Clarke, Tom Derrick and Jack Forrest.

The game was played on a dark, wet and very windy afternoon.

Raiders played with the wind at their backs in the first half. The conditions prevented this being a spectacle of open, fast rugby, although Raiders did attempt to play their normal, open style.

Raiders kicked off and had the best of the possession and territory during the half. However, controlling the ball in the conditions wasn’t easy for either side.

Raiders were probably guilty of not using the wind to play in the right areas of the pitch and continued to run the ball from deep in their own half instead. While they always looked the better side, they were disrupted by spirited defence from the home side.

With seven minutes played Raiders moved the ball to Tom Bowen on the right wing, after a good burst through the first line of defence the ball was taken back infield.

When progress was halted Will Rigelsford looked to pass the ball out to the backs but kept hold of it and made a sniping run from the base of the ruck and touched down for the first points of the afternoon. Matt McLean converted to give the visitors an easy 0-7 lead.

With 25 minutes played Raiders had a scrum feed on the Sevenoaks’ 22m line. From the base Rigelsford made a break up the blind side, when he was tackled a ruck formed and the ball was then passed to McLean running towards the right touchline.

As space was closed down, he put in a clever grubber kick beyond the defence which Bowen was on to in a flash to touch down for the visitors’ second try of the match. McLean converted from the touchline to extend the lead to 0-14.

Raiders continued to dominate territory and create good chances. After thirty minutes Curtis Barnes broke out of defence and fed the ball to McLean who was pulled down short of the line.

With 37 minutes played the visitors were testing the Sevenoaks defence close to their goal line, after several drives at close quarters from the forwards the ball was thrown wide to Forrest who stepped through a couple of tackles and then spun out of the final defensive effort to stretch out and score the third try for Raiders. McLean was again successful with the conversion and the lead stretched to 0-21 for the interval.

Sevenoaks kicked off to restart, now playing with the wind.

Early pressure from the home side was rebuffed by the visitors and as time went on it looked as if the visitors might be able to control the game despite the strong wind in their faces.

After five minutes the coaches started to use the bench, Fraser Bruce and Elliott Luke were replaced by Ethan Clarke and Nathan Jibulu in the front row. Shortly after skipper Liam Perkins was replaced by Will Hoare in the back row.

With 11 minutes played a crafty kick ahead by scrum half Rigelsford gave Barnes the chance to chase the ball to the try line and touch it down, but unfortunately the officials ruled a slight knock-on as he did so. A score at this point for Raiders would very likely have put them out of sight.

As is often the case after an incident like this the opposition come back and score against the run of play and they did. Raiders were on the attack moving the ball to stretch the defence, until the home side intercepted and raced in to open their account. With the conversion they closed the gap to 7-21.

Sevenoaks had their tails up and they applied pressure by kicking well using the wind. To make matters worse the visitors gave away several penalties.

After 23 minutes Sevenoaks got their reward with a second converted try to make it 14-21.

Raiders still played well with ball in hand and created chances in the Sevenoaks’ red zone. Several of these attacks came to nothing as their lineout failed to win the ball on their own throw in.

Raiders emptied their bench to bolster the defence but with so many penalties coming it was inevitable that a yellow card would come and it did as Frank Taggart was sent to the bin for repeated infringements by Raiders.

Sevenoaks pressed to the final play and were rewarded with a try in the corner. They needed to convert to level the score but the kick sailed past the far post.

Referee: Mike Lamb

Scorers: Tries: Rigelsford, Bowen, Forrest. Cons: McLean x 3

Team: Fraser Bruce 2. Elliot Luke 3. Dan Sargent 4. Jack Lake 5. Harry Browne 6. Liam Perkins – Captain 7. Zach Carr 8. Frank Taggart 9. Will Rigelsford 10. Sam Evans 11. Curtis Barnes 12. Harrison Sims 13. Jack Forrest 14. Tom Bowen 15. Matt McLean. Bench: 16. Nathan Jibulu 17. Ethan Clarke 20. Harry Nelson 22. Tom Derrick 24. Will Hoare