Match report and photos – Colin Coulson
With the season having reached the halfway point the previous week, Raiders welcomed Dorking to Roundstone Lane for match fourteen, the first game of the second half of the season.
With Dorking in second place in the league, Raiders faced another difficult game. However, with players returning from injury over the last couple of weeks confidence in the squad was growing and thoughts of victory, as they had in this fixture last season, were high.
Raiders made only one change to the squad that played against Wimbledon, Josh Bellamy, after England U20 duty last week, replacing Will Rawlinson on the bench.
Sadly, for Raiders’ supporters, this was to be Dan Sargent’s final game for the club as he decided to retire due to family and work commitments. After 185 league appearances his performances on the pitch and his good humour around the clubhouse will be greatly missed.
Dorking kicked off but were quickly on defence at the northern end of the pitch. Raiders came out of their own twenty-two metre area with Curtis Barnes sprinting down the left-hand touchline, his pass inside found Will Rigelsford who kicked ahead forcing the visitors to carry the ball over their own try line. A scrum on the five-metre line resulted with the home side having the put in. The visitors gave away a penalty and the hosts elected to have a shot at goal. Louis Ellis comfortably slotted the kick to take an early lead, 3-0.
During the next ten minutes Dorking played some good rugby, worthy of a side competing for promotion and in that spell scored two converted tries to move into the lead by 3-14.
Curtis Barnes was forced to leave the field with an injury and Josh Bellamy replaced him.
During the next five minutes the teams exchanged penalties to move the score to 6-17.
Things were looking bleak for the home side when with twenty minutes played the visitors added to their lead with an unconverted try.
The hosts now faced a 6-22 deficit but from this point onwards they started to retain possession for longer periods and develop meaningful attacks in the visitors’ territory.
Will Gearing-Grief left the field with a blood injury and Dan Macadams replaced him.
In the thirty-seventh minute Dorking were penalised and Louis Ellis kicked to the corner to give Raiders a lineout six metres from the goal line. From the lineout they developed their attack and after the forwards had pounded the defence on the goal line the ball was sent out to the left wing for Tom Bowen to beat the defence and score almost behind the posts. Louis Ellis added the extras to close the gap to 13-22.
In scoring the try the referee deemed that a Dorking player had committed foul play against Tom Bowen, a yellow card was issued and a penalty awarded to Raiders on the halfway line.
Raiders chose to have a shot at goal but the ball fell a few metres short, Dorking put the ball out of play and the half came to a close.
The Dorking side had probably expected an easy ride after taking what looked like a good lead in the first quarter, but they were probably quite surprised at the spirited repost from Raiders during the latter part of the half.
Half time score: Worthing Raiders 13 Dorking 22
The second half resumed with Raiders kicking off, now attacking the southern end of the ground.
With ten minutes played Dorking scored their final points of the game with a converted try. The lead extending to 13-29.
From this point on it was the home side that had the better of the game. Dorking were guilty of conceding penalties under pressure and Raiders were able to maintain territorial advantage for much of the remainder of the game.
From one such penalty Louis Ellis kicked to touch and from the lineout the forwards set up a driving maul which crossed the line in the left-hand corner and Jack Doorey-Palmer touched down. The difficult touchline kick into the wind went just wide but with plenty of time left to play the lead was reduced to 18-29.
Raiders laid siege to the Dorking goal line for much of the final ten minutes but were denied by some excellent defence. For a lot of this period, it seemed inevitable that the home side would get another score but it wasn’t to be and the visitors prevented any further concessions.
Final score: Worthing Raiders 18 Dorking 29
Raiders lost the game in the first quarter going 6-22 behind, from there they were always playing catch up. However, for the next hour right up to the final whistle they comfortably matched their opposition in attack and defence and in fact outscored them 12-7 during this period.
The game showed Dorking to be a quality side but also it was clear from this performance that Raiders, when they play like this, are a better team than most others in the league and so they go into the new year with plenty of confidence to climb out of the relegation zone.
Referee: Jack Sutton
Attendance: 496
Enzo’s Italian Restaurant Man of the Match: Ed Grinsted
Scorers:
Tries: Bowen, Doorey-Palmer
Con: Ellis
P: Ellis (2)
Team:
Dan Sargent 2. Jack Doorey-Palmer 3. Ben Featherstone 4. Jack Lake 5. Ed Grinsted 6. Will Gearing-Grief 7. Joe Knight 8. Frank Taggart 9. Will Rigelsford 10. Louis Ellis 11. Curtis Barnes 12. Harrison Sims 13. Jack Forrest – captain 14. Harry Forrest 15. Tom Bowen
Bench:
16. Grant Gatford 17. Balazs Magda 18. Dan Macadams 19. Cam Dobinson 20. Josh Bellamy TR Will Rawlinson