Worthing Raiders 19 Jersey 59

For the final game of 2025 Raiders faced top of the table Jersey at Roundstone Lane.

At present undefeated, Jersey are clear favourites for promotion, but Raiders were intent on giving them a difficult afternoon and hoping they might be the team to upset their winning run.

Selection was again difficult due to injuries and availability during this holiday period. Five changes had to be made to the squad that played at Camberley the previous week. Ollie Crow, Josh Taylor and Regin Pratt all returned with the latter playing his last game for the club before returning to Australia to have a trial period with Western Force. Charlie Spencer was back in the side, playing his 50th league game for Raiders and Jared Penfold was making his debut on the wing.

The visitors kicked off, attacking the southern end of the ground and after an evenly matched first few minutes they scored a converted try. Three minutes later Raiders replied with a try of their own. After going through the phases, Tom Meyer put a kick pass out to the left wing, where full back Charlie Spencer collected it and scored in the corner. Tom Sanderson was unable to convert, but at 5-7 the game was evenly matched.

In the twelfth minute Jersey scored an unconverted try to extend their lead to 5-12. Both sides looked capable of scoring when in possession, play was going from end to end through good rugby from both sides.

With sixteen minutes played Struan Robertson collected the ball at the back of a line out and set off on a run towards the try line. When he was stopped Regin Pratt took over and brushed aside several attempted tackles to score under the posts. Tom Sanderson added the extras and with nearly a quarter of the game gone, the scores were level at 12-12.

Raiders came close to scoring again shortly after the restart by Jersey. A long kick down field by Tom Meyer allowed right winger Jared Penfold to get his foot to the bouncing ball, giving him the chance to chase down the ball as it crossed the goal line. Unfortunately, the defender just got there first resulting in a goal line drop out.

The home side came straight back into the attack and when Jersey were penalised, Tom Meyer kicked to touch so they had a line out five metres from the try line. The line out was lost and chance was gone.

At 12-12 and nearly twenty-five minutes gone, Raiders were going well and looking just as good as the league leaders. Things started to go wrong for Raiders from then onwards. Firstly, Charlie Spencer had to leave the game with an injury, Josh Taylor replacing him. Then a forward pass by the visitors resulted in them scoring another converted try, 12-19.

To make matters worse they scored again in the thirty-first minute and the thirty-third minute. Both were converted and suddenly the visitors lead had shot up to 12-33.

Second row Matt Bosworth then had to leave the game with an injury. Sam Cook came on and there was a reshuffle of positions in the pack.

The Jersey forwards were dominant in the scrum, and this was causing Raiders real problems as the referee penalised them regularly. This allowed Jersey to gain easy metres, followed by having the throw in at the ensuing line outs.

The pressure created in this way led to another converted try to the visitors shortly before half time. The lead had now grown to what looked like a match winning gap of twenty-eight points at 12-40.

The half ended with a good break by Will Beer, only to see the ball lost close to the try line.

Half time score: Worthing Raiders 12 Jersey 40