Worthing Raiders 50 Maidenhead 12

With only five games left in the regular season, Raiders faced Maidenhead at Roundstone Lane in a contest they needed to win to maintain their position in mid table and clear of the relegation play off zone.

Raiders made three changes to the side that played at Farnham two weeks ago. Tom Meyer and Callum Butler were unavailable and were replaced by Josh Taylor and Alex Havers respectively. Luke Gill returned from injury to take replace Charlie Dale on the bench.

With the sun shining and the ground reasonably dry, prospects for an open game of rugby were good.

Raiders kicked off attacking the northern end of the ground in the first half. It was the home team that made the better start. It wasn’t long before they became the dominant side, a situation they maintained for the majority of the game.

Sam Myles opened the scoring, rounding off a fine handling move that had started from a line out on the halfway line. Ed Hartley converted to give them a 7 – 0 lead with only three minutes played.

Raiders doubled their score in the sixth minute with Jared Penfold cruising through the defence to score on the right wing. Ed Hartley converted to bring the score to 14 – 0.

The handling and continuity of play from Raiders was excellent. They constantly stretched the Maidenhead defence from touch line to touch line, not allowing them to get a foot hold in the game.

There wasn’t a scrum until twenty minutes had been played, indicating how well both teams were controlling the ball when in possession.

Josh Taylor scored the third try for Raiders after the forwards had driven towards the goal line from a line out. Several attempts to cross the line had been thwarted by the spirited defence, at which point Sam Myles threw the ball wide to Josh Taylor, who had a simple run to the line. With the conversion missed the hosts had a 19 – 0 lead.

Within a minute Raiders were back on the attack. Struan Robertson collected the restart kick and instigated a move that saw forwards and backs handling the ball at pace to make ground towards the visitors’ goal line. When progress was held up a few metres from the line, Maidenhead were penalised for handling the ball on the floor in a tackle. Quick as a flash Sam Myles tapped and went on his own breaking through several attempted tackles to touch down. The try was unconverted but after twenty-four minutes Raiders had a 24 – 0 lead and a try bonus point in the bag.

There was plenty to admire in the home team’s play during the first half. A great sixty metre open field 50 – 22 kick from Josh Taylor, a determined chase back by Jared Penfold to put in a try saving tackle and prevent the visitors from opening their account and three times Raiders were held up over the Maidenhead try line.

The only negative aspect in the half had been when the home side had been turned over in the tackle a couple of times when players had got isolated. The visitors had one or two good moments when in possession, showing they had the potential to score points given the opportunity. Fortunately, Raiders added solid defence to their free-flowing rugby and thus prevented the visitors getting on the score sheet before half time.

Half time score: Worthing Raiders 24 Maidenhead 0