Safe for the season: Worthing Raiders’ win at Hammersmith sees off threat of relegation play-offs

It was a hard-earned victory away from home, which means Raiders will finish in mid-table.

Raiders have only one game left – they play Bracknell at home on April 11 to see who will finish in seventh place.

After an excellent win the previous week against CS Stags, Raiders travelled into London requiring a win to make sure of a finish no lower than eighth place.

Raiders made only one change, Max Ravaudet replacing the injured Sam Cook.

On a hard, dry pitch Hammersmith & Fulham kicked off with a strong wind at their backs. Despite playing into the wind Raiders spent most of the half deep in the home side’s territory but were unable to turn this into points.

At the first scrum the home side had the put-in but the visitors took the ball against the head and set the pattern for the rest of the game. Although Raiders had by far the better of position and possession the Hammersmith defence repelled them with stout defence for most of the half.

After 20 minutes skipper Elliott Luke received a yellow card and soon Luke Gill followed him to the sin bin. Despite this Raiders continued to look more likely to score than the hosts.

In the 35th minute Raiders capitalised on all the possession with a converted try. After building an attack over many phases Tom Meyer touched down, and Ed Hartley converted.

The half concluded with no further score, although the visitors had many chances during the first forty minutes. A combination of good defence by Hammersmith & Fulham and too many errors by Raiders prevented the score being higher.

Raiders restarted after the break and with the wind behind them the expectation was they would build on their slim lead. The visitors continued to dominate the scrum and were awarded several penalties for doing so.

In the tenth minute of the half Raiders pushed the Hammersmith scrum back 10 to 15m. The referee indicated he was awarding a penalty to Raiders, but as he played advantage the ball was moved to outside centre Joel Andrews, who cantered in from 25m to score. Hartley added the extras – 0-14.

The visitors were still making errors under pressure and eventually the hosts scored a fine team try which they converted, 7-14.

Within a few minutes Raiders extended their lead with a well-worked catch and drive, Gill touching down. With the conversion missed, it was 7-19.

From the restart Raiders secured the ball and Meyer put a long, high kick down field. The defenders failed to catch it and then knocked on to give the visitors a scrum 30m from the try line.

The ball moved to the backs, Ben Heber sold a dummy and breached the defensive line before passing to Jared Penfold on the wing and he outstripped the remaining defence to dive in at the corner. With the conversion slipping past the post the lead now looked a little more secure at 7-24 and the try bonus point had been earned.

The hosts chose to run the ball from everywhere on the field and were extremely dangerous when doing so. Their ambition was rewarded in the 35th minute when they scored another converted try to reduce the deficit to 14-24.