RUGBY: New signing helps Raiders get back to winning ways

The result lifted Raiders up to 11th in the table and team manager David Hinchcliffe is hoping to finish the year strongly.

He said: "We have Rosslyn Park this week, which will be tough, as they are up in third, and then we face Henley and Shelford. Dings are three places above us, by one point, and we have a game in hand, so it would be good to leapfrog them.

"It will leave us nicely placed at Christmas, which is what we want.

"We also have Greg Walker and Greg Sullivan on their way back to fitness and Will Stutchbury should be soon as well. It showed this week, having a couple of players back, and people playing at nine and 10 who are used to that position.

"It was a good win on a long journey, which makes it not a very easy place to go."

Bridgwater started the stronger and came at Worthing very hard but after riding the storm, Raiders started to put some attacks together and pushed forward into Bridgwater's half.

A break forward from Shane Costigan almost got to the try line and a pass out to Charlie McGowan saw him go over to put down the first points, and Matt McLean added the extras.

Worthing were denied a second as Ben Dudley was heading for the line but a Worthing player knocked into the referee and he pulled play back for a scrum,

A break by Matt Britton was passed out to winger Sam Showering who crossed in the corner for Bridgwater to put down, but the kick went unconverted.

The next five minutes put Raiders into the break with a comfortable lead. Joe Govett passed the Bridgwater winger and the full-back to go over and, on the stroke of half-time, new signing Semisi Taulava, who had been playing in New Zealand, touched down for a debut try. Both kicks went unconverted

Raiders were 17-5 up at the break and comfortable, but the second half was hard work as heavy rain had set in.

The conditions blighted the second half as both teams struggled with handling, so there was a lot of kicking from both sides.

Bridgwater managed a try, against the run of play, when Jon Edwards broke from the middle and managed to bypass a number of tackles to score.

Govett denied battling Bridgwater the consolation of a losing bonus point, though, with a well-struck penalty from 40 metres to complete the scoring.

Hinchcliffe added: "They came at us very hard at the start but we defended well, then came back at them.

"Semi (Semisi Taulava) looked extremely good and he himself admits he's not fit at the moment but he has fitted in well."

WORTHING: McLean, Nielsen, Spells, Meddings, Govett, Dudley, Costigan, Taulava, Redmayne, Arthur, Launchbury, McGowan, Halsey, Pointing, Emmett. Subs: Cleveland, Charad, Maidment, Metters, Dunckley.

Littlehampton got back into action with a 7-0 win over Worthing 4th in their first game for six weeks in Sussex League Division 2 West.

It was 0-0 at half-time, but Littlehampton started the second half the better and dominating the scrums and line-outs, while Worthing gave away a number of penalties.

A quick tap penalty by Billie Johnstone was stopped short, before Richard Russell touched down and Dean Torode kicked the conversion.

What looked a certain Worthing try was then stopped by Bobby Mathews as Worthing started to put Littlehampton under pressure, and things could have been very different in the final stages if they had not kicked a penalty wide.

LITTLEHAMPTON: Cullen, Russell, Simmons, Boddington, Eames, Kierle, Singleton, Lindsay, Johnstone, Torode, Mathews, Best, Kierle, Walters, Lovegrove. Subs: Wood, Porter, Edmunds.

In the Sussex Intermediate League, bottom-of-the-table Shoreham lost 18-12 at home to St Francis, and Norfolk Arms went down 24-0 at home to East Grinstead 2nd.

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