Worthing Raiders suffer Wimbledon woe

Although it was a third defeat in the Regional 1 South Central season, Raiders still fought to the end and picked up a valuable bonus point.

After being on the wrong end of a very close encounter the previous week with London Scottish Lions, Raiders travelled to Wimbledon looking for a much-needed win.

The Raiders’ injury list has risen to a dozen players – withStruan Robertson and Joel Andrews the latest additions. The coaches made four changes due to other unavailabilities and returning to the squad were Jackson Clark, Fletcher Rose, Tom Meyer and Teddy Henry, making his debut on the wing.

Raiders kicked off playing into a strong breeze and were quickly on the attack. The forwards took control in the early minutes and were rewarded with a try by Leo Ravaudet, which went unconverted.

Wimbledon soaked up plenty of pressure from the visitors and hit back with an unconverted try of their own to level the score after fourteen minutes, 5-5.

In the 24th minute, making use of the strong breeze, Wimbledon kicked a 45m penalty to take the lead at 8-5.

The visitors put Wimbledon under pressure through the work of their forwards at scrums and lineouts but were unable to turn possession into points.

The home side kicked another lengthy penalty in the 35th minute to extend their lead to 11-5. A couple of minutes later they had the chance to extend their lead further with another shot at the posts, but it flew narrowly wide.

Good approach play by Raiders was foiled more than once by solid defence from Wimbledon.

Wimbledon were very good on the counter-attack, with strong runs from their backs making big gains in territory. Raiders’ scrambling defence managed to prevent any further scores until the last play of the half, when the home side notched up a converted try to open up a worrying gap at 18-5.

Raiders had been guilty of kicking inaccurately during the first half, which allowed Wimbledon to counter-attack from deep.

The visitors brought Fletcher Rose and Jackson Clark on to replace Luke Gill and Tom Adams at the start of the second half.

Raiders needed to make a good start to the half but it was not to be. Wimbledon restarted the game and within a minute they extended their lead to 25-5 with a converted try.

For the next ten minutes the Raiders’ forwards were in total control, winning a penalty at the scrum on Wimbledon’s put-in, a driving maul that took the hosts 20m back towards their try line and eventually, from a lineout, setting up a catch and drive which resulted in a try for skipper Elliott Luke. Ed Hartley added the extras to narrow the gap to 25-12.

Although the visitors looked capable of getting back into it, lapses in defence and errors in attack allowed Wimbledon to score an unconverted try to take a 30-12 lead.

The visitors continued to make the best use of their forward power and Rose touched down after several minutes of pressure deep in Wimbledon’s 22. The conversion was unsuccessful, but the lead was reduced to 30-17.

Raiders emptied the bench in an effort to turn the deficit around. But when it looked like they were getting the upper hand the hosts picked up another converted try to extend their lead to 37-17.

With only five minutes left, the challenge for Raiders was to score a bonus point try as the chance of victory was gone.

Two minutes from time the forwards again came up with a try from close quarters, this time from Gill. Hartley converted.

With the score at 37-24 time ran out for any further comeback.