RUGBY: Raiders lose at Southend

WORTHING Raiders Rugby Club's slim chance of taking fifth spot in National League 2 South was dashed on Saturday by Southend, who celebrated their final home game of the season with a 38-14 win over Raiders.

Raiders achieved their highest-ever National League finish of sixth with a 51-20 win at Shelford the previous weekend, and despite Saturday's defeat, Raiders team manager David Hinchcliffe believes the team has achieved more than was ever dreamed of this season, with a top-six finish, something they still did not think was possible at Christmas.

He said: "I think we've exceeded expectations. Sixth was something we never even thought about at the start of the season. Even at Christmas we thought eighth was can-do, and seventh would be great.

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"With this in mind, although mathematically we still could have made fifth, it would have needed two five-point wins and other results to go our way, so it was unlikely, and this was a bit of a dead game.

"For them it was their last home game, they had a big marquee up, pre-match meals, it was a whole party atmosphere and it went their way.

"I'm not saying that we weren't up for it but there is a very fine line when you're getting up for a game, they just had that extra one per cent. But we didn't play as well as we can and were missing Joe Launchbury and Paul Dunckley."

It was a far from polished performance from Worthing, who were punished by a good Southend performance, capped by their stand-out full-back, Simon Hoult.

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Matt McLean was denied from opening up the scoring as the strong wind held up his early penalty kick.

Hoult then put over two penalties to give Southend a 6-0 lead.

Raiders' Jamie Redmayne was shown a yellow card with 30 minutes gone, and Southend were able to break through the midfield, with Rhys Powell going over.

McLean managed to put over two penalties before half-time, but Hoult was also on target with another kick to give Southend a 14-6 lead at the break.

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With just three minutes off the second half played, Hoult put down a converted try near the posts to put them well in control after a well-worked move.

McLean added Worthing's first points of the half just three minutes later with a long-range penalty, however, Southend were beginning to look dominant with some fluid passing.

Danny Cleare scored Southend's third try of the afternoon on 50 minutes, after one of their overlap plays paid off and he went through to touch down under the posts.

Southend stayed strong at the back, breaking down Raiders' advances, although on 57 minutes they were reduced to 10 men as Mike Stanley was shown a yellow card for preventing the ball from clearing the ruck.

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Despite Joe Govett's well-struck resultant penalty kick from near the halfway line, it failed to add any points as the ball hit the post.

Raiders rang the changes, introducing fresh legs to try to pry an advantage from the extra man, but they failed to add any points and instead Southend pulled further in front.

Another successful penalty kick from Hoult, preceded a good try from Phil Ellis, which Hoult converted to make the score 38-9.

Southend were back to 14 men for the last 10 minutes, as Charlie Keenan picked up a yellow, which forced them to finish the game on the back foot. In the last minute, the Worthing pack finally broke down their opponents and earned a try in the corner, which substitute Sam Hewick put down.

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WORTHING: McLean, Govett, Sullivan, Ryle, Walker, Dudley, Costigan, Emmett, Pointing, Bruce, Smith, McGowan, Arthur, Redmayne, Taulava. Subs: Bennett, Maslen, Hewick, Metters, Cleveland.

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