PLAY-OFF FOR WORTHING?

WITH JUST one round of matches to go, Worthing have been toppled from the top of the London One table. Cambridge followed their 92-0 rout of Old Albanians with a 66-24 battering of plucky Canterbury, who at least fielded a full-strength first team, and now have a points difference better than Worthing by two.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Apr 2005, 18:29 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 00:57 BST

On April 23 Canterbury come to Roundstone Lane whilst lowly Basingstoke, who have just managed to avoid relegation, visit Cam-bridge. Worthing are assured of at least the play-off spot, which will be against Bridgwater & Albion or Clifton on April 30, but to achieve the League title, and the automatic promotion it brings, a form book upset will be needed.

Captain Mike Imrie '” who went off with a hamstring injury on Saturday '” said: "We probably should have won by more. It wasn't our greatest performance but we got the win.

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"I'd have to say Cambridge are strong favourites for the title now. In the last two matches they have scored 160 points and we couldn't have predicted they would put that amount of points on the board against the two teams who they played.

"They have really come together since Christmas and all credit to them. We knew they would mount a challenge and they have managed to reel us in.

"We have to make sure we beat Canterbury in our final game to ensure a home game in the play-offs as we wouldn't really fancy travelling away. We have to still be confident of going up.

"It's been a fantastic season for us and it may go on for one extra game."

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At St Albans on Saturday, Worthing started as though they meant business. Ben Coulson slotted an early penalty and then converted Simon Alcott's try, which was set up by some typical Ben Dudley trickery.

But the home side, back to more or less full-strength, after the insult to rugby they achieved the previous week, showed some spirit and ran in tries from Mike Page and Chris Eke to hold a 12-10 half-time lead.

Three early Worthing substitutions were made in the second period and on 55 minutes Worthing would have taken the lead but for a mistake by the referee. Coulson's 45 metre penalty attempt from wide out narrowly missed but struck an Old Albanian player on the leg and bounced forward where a colleague, who was clearly in an offside position, caught the ball preventing a probable Worthing score.

Instead of a penalty the referee awarded a scrum. Then to compound matters he ruled that Steve Dove had been held up when he drove over the try line from the resulting scrum. Better placed spectators tho-ught otherwise. It seemed that lady luck had deserted the visitors.

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Old Albanians now resorted to time-wasting and spoiling tactics in an effort to prevent a score. Their back row frequently interfered with play from offside positions and were allowed to escape without punishment. But with ten minutes left the referee at last spotted an infringement and the ever reliable Coulson coolly put Worthing back in front.

Now all that hard work on the training ground kicked-in as superior fitness told.

The Worthing forwards drove a loose scrum over the line with Sean Bennett at the bottom. Coulson converted. And then an excellent passing move enabled Rowan O'Gorman to go over in the corner and give the score an air of respectability. Now we must hope for that form book upset.

WORTHING: Taylor; Coulson, Butler, Stewart-McDonald, Stephens; Dudley, Imrie (capt); Storer, Alcott, Nacagilevu; Dove, C. McGowan, De Boer, Kirchell, O'Gorman: Bench: Bennett (Alcott 45 inj), Phillips (De Boer 48 ), Coombe (Imrie 50 inj). Attendance: 180.

Related topics:Cambridge