This week was the final home game of the year, with two consecutive away games to follow before the Christmas break.
Sevenoaks were this week’s visitors to Roundstone Lane. Another intense match was expected with the teams sitting in twelfth and thirteenth positions in the league. This was, as in the previous match, a must win game for Raiders.
Selection was hampered by injuries to Elliott Luke, Harrison Dakin and Rob Ure and Kieran Tomlinson was no longer available having moved out of the area. On the plus side Tom Bowen, Bruno Perry and Ray Jardine returned to the squad, and Alex Clayton made his debut in the centre.
With amber weather warnings in place the game was played in wet and very wet conditions. Raiders kicked off playing towards the southern end of the ground, with the wind at their backs. Fortunately, the rain relented before kick-off, but the underfoot conditions were less than ideal. The hosts were guilty of giving away penalties at regular intervals, thus enabling the visitors to kick to touch and then make use of their well-organised driving maul.
Raiders tried to run the ball when in possession when maybe they would have benefitted more from long kicks down the field. The game was understandably scrappy with both sides making handling errors under pressure. The visitors opened the scoring with a penalty from in front of the posts after twenty-five minutes. 0 – 3.
The hosts almost scored a few minutes later when Dan Macadams charged down an attempted box kick, with the line at his mercy he was unable to pick the ball up cleanly and the chance was gone. After thirty-one minutes Raiders made a tactical change, bringing Jake Rutherford on for Bruno Perry and during the next seven minutes they lost Ollie Streeter and then Jimmy Staples to injuries. Ben Featherstone and Finlay Glass replacing them. After thirty-nine minutes of pretty dour rugby the visitors sneaked in with a converted try on the stroke of half time. 0 – 10.
Half time score: Worthing Raiders 0 Sevenoaks 10
As it was a very dark afternoon and both sides were wearing dark strips, the home side changed into their bright yellow shirts for the second half.
Tom Meyer replaced Sam Myles at the break.
Sevenoaks restarted the game with an increasingly strong wind on their backs. The second half was dominated by the visitors, who gained advantage from high, long kicks that were extremely difficult to field cleanly in the conditions. The half started badly for the hosts when Sevenoaks scored a converted try within a minute of the restart, 0-17.
With only seven minutes gone they scored another converted try to stretch their lead to 0-24. They followed with an unconverted try five minutes later. The lead was now 0-29 and the game was fast slipping away from Raiders. It was almost halfway through the half before Raiders were able to take play deep into Sevenoaks’ territory. They achieved this through good interplay between forwards and backs. The Sevenoaks’s defence was sound but when Jack Forrest put a neat grubber kick through to the try line, Raiders were prevented from scoring when a defender managed to get to the ball first. The hosts were awarded a five-metre scrum but were unable to convert the situation into points.
Injuries continued to hamper the hosts with both Ben Featherstone and Dan Macadams having to leave the game. When Sevenoaks scored again after twenty-eight minutes the lead had become insurmountable in the time left in the game. 0-36. During the final five minutes Raiders played their best rugby and on the stroke of full time a good move was finished off by Max Boxall who burst through to score under the posts. Alex Clayton converted, and the referee called time with the score at 7-36.
Full time score: Worthing Raiders 7 Sevenoaks 36
Possibly the most disappointing result of the season. Sevenoaks deserved to win as they made the better use of the conditions. The game was in the balance at half time, but the hosts were unable to make real headway with ball in hand against the wind in the second half. Unfortunately, having to replace four injured players during the game didn’t help their cause. Raiders will regroup during the week in the build up to the final two games of the year, away to Westcombe Park and Havant.
Referee: Peter Buchanan
Attendance: 275
The Fox Inn man of the Match: Fraser Bruce
Scorers:
Tries: Max Boxall
Conversions: Alex Clayton
Team:
1. Fraser Bruce 2. Jimmy Staples 3. Ollie Streeter 4. Jack Lake 5. Dan Macadams 6. Ollie Crow 7. Will Gearing-Grief 8. Frank Taggart 9. Sam Myles 10. Jack Forrest – Captain 11. Will Beer 12. Alex Clayton 13. Max Boxall 14. Bruno Perry 15. Tom Bowen
Replacements:
16. Fin Glass 17. Ben Featherstone 18. Ray Jardine 19. Jake Rutherford 20. Tom Meyer
