It all comes together as Worthing Raiders beat Farnham

The first quarter was very evenly contested with Farnham showing they had the ability to break down defences and score points. But Raiders closed the visitors game down and managed to gain the upper hand.

With every member of the squad playing their part in an exhilarating performance there was much for the coaches to be pleased about, but no room for complacency as there is still much to improve on.

Matt Bosworth earned the MoM for his contribution on his debut.

Farnham begn the day in fifth place, while Raiders were five points behind in eighth.

Raiders selected Bosworth and Lewis Reed for their debuts and Will Beer and Max Ravaudet returned to the squad.

The hosts kicked off, attacking the northern end, but they didn’t make the most auspicious start. In the first 13 minutes they gave away five penalties and found it impossible to become an attacking force. With possession and territory in their favour the visitors opened the scoring with a converted try in the 17th minute.

Raiders began to settle and on 21 minutes they disrupted the Farnham lineout and won the ball on the floor. From the ruck they spun the ball across the backs putting right wing Adam McLean in space. He sped off down the wing and touched down in the corner.

Tom Sanderson’s conversion into a strong breeze fell short. McLean was injured scoring the try and had to leave the field. Reed took his place on the right wing.

In the final ten minutes of the first half Farnham gave away five penalties. This allowed the Raiders to gain territory through good touch kicking from JD Leali’ifano and put pressure on the visitors’ defence.

From one of these penalties Raiders gained clean ball from the resulting lineout and the backs moved the ball at pace towards the opposite side of the pitch. Reed received the final pass on the right touchline and brushed aside the attempted tacklers as he sprinted 25m to score. Sanderson converted for a 12-7 lead.

As the half was drawing to its close Raiders earned another penalty at a Farnham put-in at a scrum. Leali’ifano put the touch finder deep into Farnham’s 22m area.

From the lineout the ball moved towards the centre of the field and Josh Taylor had a dart at the line from 10m out, he avoided a couple of tackles and dived over with two defenders hanging on to him. But he was deemed to be held up and no try was awarded.

With Raiders attacking the southern end in the second period, the visitors kicked off. Beer caught the ball inside the 22 and set off up the left wing to instigate the first attack of the half.

The Farnham forwards were a lot heavier than those of the hosts and it was feared they might cause problems at the set scrums, however the opposite occurred as the Raiders set scrum became more dominant.

The hosts only had a 12-7 lead but they were playing with increasing confidence.

Skipper Elliott Luke made a tackle-busting run but stopped short of the line; from the ruck Struan Robertson picked up and dived over the line under the posts. Sanderson converted – 19-7.

Raiders gave away two quick penalties allowing Farnham to score a converted try from a lineout close to the try line.

Tom Meyer replaced Taylor at fly half and later Max Ravaudet took over at hooker in place of Luke.

The rest of the game saw the home side in control.

Christian Streater scored the bonus point try after 22 minutes. Beer made the initial half break before off loading to Streater, who broke through several attempted tackles before scoring under the posts. Sanderson converted to stretch the lead to 26-14.

Another period of expansive play ended with a bustling run from the centre Andrews, who was held up over the line resulting in a goal-line drop-out.

Raiders scored their final try with six minutes left. After the forwards had pounded the defence close to the try line, the ball was moved away to Meyer in the out-half position, he threw a neat dummy and went in next to the posts. Sanderson added the extras.