After a weekend off, Raiders resumed their league programme with a home game against Wimbledon.
Raiders previous fixture in Jersey was a difficult one against a team clearly favourites for promotion at the end of the season. Training over the last two weeks had been excellent with well over forty players striving for a place in the starting fifteen.
The coaches made three changes with Struan Robertson, Dan Wallis Downham and Sam Cook returning to the squad. Rob Ure and Ben Heber were both unavailable having picked up injuries in Jersey. Alex Perry and JD Leali’ifano were making their home debuts.
The pitch was in good condition for running rugby, but a very strong south westerly wind would probably have quite an impact on the game.
Raiders kicked off attacking the southern end of the ground and were quickly into their stride. Patterns of play from the training ground were on display as they developed some strong attacks with forwards and backs linking well.
It was, however, the visitors that got the first score. Their converted try was well-structured and deserved the seven points it earned them, 0-7 after thirteen minutes. The home side didn’t level the score until twenty-eight minutes had passed.
After a period of even contest, which showed both teams could be dangerous with ball in hand, Raiders built an excellent attack, moving the ball through many phases until Regin Pratt received the ball twenty metres out. He charged straight through the defensive line, bouncing attempted tacklers aside before offloading to Luke Gill, who touched down to the left of the posts. Tom Sanderson levelled the score at 7-7 with his conversion.
Within a couple of minutes Wimbledon scored a converted try to regain the lead after Raiders had failed to secure the ball at the restart, 7-14. Throughout the half the teams had been well-matched, neither being able to dominate the play for any length of time. With a couple of minutes to play before the break the hosts levelled the score.
Based firstly on good defence, followed by sweeping attack play, Raiders were held up over the line. From the goal line drop out, the hosts were quickly back, deep in Wimbledon territory. Another powerful surge from Regin Pratt and some controlled phase play enabled Christian Streater to break free to dive under the posts. Tom Sanderson added the extras to bring the scores to 14-14 as the referee brought the half to its conclusion.
Half time score: Worthing Raiders 14 Wimbledon 14
At the break Raiders made their first interchanges, bringing JD Leali’ifano and Alex Havers on for Josh Taylor and Alex Perry respectively. Wimbledon kicked off with the hosts now attacking the northern end of the ground.
During the next twenty-five minutes raiders took control of the game with their forwards dominating their opposition, especially at the set scrum. With plenty of good possession this allowed them to play an entertaining, open style of rugby that Wimbledon found difficult to cope with.
After seven minutes the hosts put so much pressure on the visitors set scrum, that it buckled and they were forced to concede a penalty. A fine touch finder by Tom Meyer gave Raiders a great attacking position for a line out. The forwards carried hard towards the goal line and then the ball was moved wider to Adam McLean, who burst through the defence to touch down. Tom Sanderson was unsuccessful with the conversion, but the hosts took the lead for the first time in the game at 19-14.
Shortly after the restart, Christian Streater won the ball at a break down, the ball then found its way into the hands of prop forward, Regin Pratt who launched himself from the halfway line, brushing aside attempted tacklers and out sprinting the cover defence to score a fine individual try. Tom Sanderson again converted and a comfortable lead of 26-14 had opened up and the try bonus point achieved.
With Raiders’ scrum now totally dominant, the visitors were under even more pressure. A fine move in the backs should have resulted in another try, but the last pass went astray. Regin Pratt was replaced in the front row, by Sam Cook after eighteen minutes of the half.
Just on twenty minutes, prop Struan Robertson put in a defence splitting run after collecting the ball from a Wimbledon line out. With ten metres to go his progress was stopped, but not before he had offloaded to Tom Sanderson, who avoided a couple of attempted tackles before he crossed the line for raiders’ fifth try. Tom was unable to convert but the lead was now 31-14.
The hosts were spending more and more time in Wimbledon’s twenty-two metre area and when Tom Meyer kicked a penalty into touch close to the goal line, the forwards set up a driving maul from the lineout possession and skipper, Elliott Luke scored the sixth try for the hosts. Tom Sanderson converted and the game looked to be all over at 38-14. The visitors however came straight back and scored an unconverted try to close the gap to 38-19.
The final twelve minutes of the match saw the visitors unable to field a front row and so scrums became uncontested. For the first time in the half Wimbledon were able to get good ball as Raiders’ scrum domination had been removed. Wimbledon then played some good handling rugby and Raiders became ‘the rabbits in the headlights’ and fell off tackles resulting in the visitors scoring two more tries, one of which they converted. With a couple of minutes left to play Raiders’ lead had been cut to only seven points.
Fortunately they ‘steadied the ship’ and closed the game out.
Full time score: Worthing Raiders 38 Wimbledon 31
Another five points earned, to put Raiders in fifth place in the league on fifteen points. All in all, three wins out of four is a pretty good start for this exciting new squad.
The crowd of just under 350 had been well entertained with eleven tries but Raiders’ coaches were not happy with the final fifteen minutes of the game, when the team seemed to go to sleep. Certainly, going to uncontested scrums made a massive impact on this last period.
Raiders should have managed the latter stages of the contest much better, and the players were well aware of this. Having said that there was much to admire in the performance overall and plenty of positives to build on.
Man of the Match was awarded to Regin Pratt for his blockbuster performance in the scrum and especially with the ball in hand.
Referee: Nick Edmonds
Attendance: 345
The Egremont Man of the Match: Regin Pratt
Scorers:
Tries: Gill, Streater, McLean, Pratt, Sanderson, Luke
Conversions: Sanderson (4)
Team: 1. Struan Robertson 2. Elliott Luke – Captain 3. Regin Pratt 4. Jack Lake 5. Ollie Crow 6. Alex Perry 7. Luke Gill 8. Dan Wallis Downham 9. Tom Sanderson 10. Tom Meyer 11. Will Beer 12. Josh Taylor 13. Christian Streater 14. Joel Andrews 15. Adam McLean
Bench: 16. Sam Cook 17. Alex Havers 18. JD Leali’ifano
