After a close game away in Guernsey, Raiders returned to Roundstone Lane for their first home match of the season against local rivals, Havant. The last time these two sides met in the league was in season 2008/09.
Selection for Raiders was hampered by injuries and unavailabilities but seventeen of last week’s squad were selected and they were joined by Will Beer, returning from injury and both making their Raiders’ debut, Ray Jardine and David Aniebonam.
On a hot, sunny afternoon Raiders kicked off playing towards the southern end of the ground. A crowd of over 450 was in attendance. The referee stamped his authority on the game in the third minute, when he sent a Havant player to the sin bin. Four more were to follow during the course of the match, although the game was played in good spirit throughout.
Raiders were quickly on the attack but having created a great opportunity to open the scoring, they lost the lineout on their own throw when only five metres from the Havant try line. With a kick and chase Raiders ended up defending deep in their own territory. Both sides put themselves in scoring positions on the field but were unable to put a score on the board in the first fifteen minutes. The visitors came closest when they had a penalty attempt at goal in the eighth minute, but the shot went wide.
The game was evenly balanced until in the sixteenth minute the visitors scored an unconverted try to lead 0-5. Jack Forrest was yellow carded for his attempted tackle on the try scorer. In the twenty fourth minute Havant scored a second unconverted try to extend their lead to 0-10. Raiders opened their account in the twenty seventh minute with a penalty from the boot of Louis Ellis, closing the gap to 3-10. The home side started to use their bench after thirty-five minutes, Ray Jardine replacing Will Gearing-Grief and shortly after Dan Macadams was on for Harrison Dakin.
Good pressure exerted by the home side resulted in Louis Ellis kicking a second penalty to close the gap to 6-10. Unfortunately, Havant hit back with a converted try right on half time to open the gap to 6-17.
The first half had been evenly contested on possession and territory but the home side only had themselves to blame for being in deficit after conceding too many penalties and making simple errors to spoil promising attacking moves.
Half time score: Worthing Raiders 6 Havant 17
Raiders made more changes during the break, Elliott Luke and Charlie Spencer replacing respectively Jimmy Staples and Louis Ellis, followed a few minutes later by Balazs Magda taking over from Ollie Streeter in the front row. Havant restarted after the break for what was to be a topsy-turvey sort of a half.
At times the home side played outstanding fifteen-man running rugby but invariably errors caused their momentum to be thwarted. Despite this it was they who opened the scoring in the second half.
From a Havant scrum Raiders pressure caused the ball to go to ground and Jake Rutherford was able to put a boot to the ball, which then bounced kindly into his hands allowing him to sprint forty metres to touch down. Charlie Spencer added the extras and the gap was down to 13-17 after ten minutes.
Two minutes later Dan Macadams was yellow carded for a technical infringement. The visitors kicked the resulting penalty to touch and from the lineout they forced their way over the Raiders’ try line for another unconverted try. Giving them breathing space at 13-22. Raiders built promising attacks, only to be stopped by good defence or their own simple mistakes. After seventeen minutes the visitors scored another unconverted try to stretch their lead to 13-27.
The home side kept themselves in the game by scoring the next try after nineteen minutes.
Charlie Spencer fielded a clearance kick and made ground forward, there then followed a series of neat passes at pace and under pressure, which eventually released skipper, Jack Forrest to sprint away to score another try. Charlie Spencer converted, and the game was back to a one score difference at 20-27.
The visitors hit back with a converted try, suddenly the gap between the teams had opened up to fourteen points at 20-34. A few moments later they added a three-point penalty to move out to 20-37.
Although the home side continued to make errors at important moments, they were still producing rugby that was penetrating the visitors’ defensive lines. Eventually, Jack Forrest scored his second try from one of these plays and Charlie Spencer converted to close the gap to 27-37 with about five minutes to play. With only a few minutes to play it was still possible for the home side to gain one or possibly two bonus points. When Balazs Magda was yellow carded it made the job even more difficult. Havant took the chance to kick the penalty and extend their lead to 27-40.
The spirit of this young, largely inexperienced side shone through as they put together an excellent handling move, that ended with Jake Rutherford scoring his second try of the match. This earned a try bonus point for his team and when Charlie Spencer stepped up and slotted the conversion the gap closed to 34-40 and a second bonus point had been achieved and the game came to a close.
Full time score: Worthing Raiders 34 Havant 40
A frustrating result for Raiders who made too many simple errors and gave away too many penalties to maintain the pressure on their opponents for any length of time. However, on a positive note they managed to win the second half 28-23 and but for the problems mentioned above, the final result could have been so different. Plenty to work on for the coaches but plenty of positives as well.
Attendance: 451
Referee: Phil Russell
The Fox Inn Man of the Match: Jake Rutherford
Scorers:
Tries: Jake Rutherford x 2, Jack Forrest x 2
Conversions: Charlie Spencer x 4
Penalties: Louis Ellis x 2
Team:
1. Fraser Bruce 2. Jimmy Staples 3. Ollie Streeter 4. Jack Lake 5. Ollie Crow 6. Will Gearing-Grief 7. Harrison Dakin 8. David Aniebonam 9. Jake Rutherford 10. Louis Ellis 11. Will Beer 12. Jack Forrest – Captain 13. Max Boxall 14. Kieran Tomlinson 15. Bruno Perry
Bench:
16. Elliott Luke 17. Balazs Magda 18. Dan Macadams 19. Charlie Spencer 20. Ray Jardine
