Miles proud of Raiders’ performance

WORTHING Raiders Rugby Club captain Matt Miles admitted he was proud after Saturday’s performance, although said there was a bit of regret that his side had failed to beat Doncaster Knights.
Action from Worthing Raiders against Doncaster on SaturdayAction from Worthing Raiders against Doncaster on Saturday
Action from Worthing Raiders against Doncaster on Saturday

The National 1 leaders led 18-3 at half-time, before Raiders fought back in the second half to pick up a losing bonus point and Miles said: “There were a couple of errors here and there maybe, but the way we went down 18-3 and pulled ourselves back to 21-17, it’s a fantastic result and I’m really proud.

“Although I said before the game that a point or two would be fantastic, in the back of my head I was thinking ‘we’ve got this, we’ve got this’ in the last five minutes with the way we were going.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“But after going down to two soft tries in the first half and to get a point is huge and we’re really pleased.

“It’s a loss but it’s a good loss in some ways. It’s not the way you want to start 2014 but they’re more or less a professional outfit and we’ve done really well against them.”

Miles also believes the performance is one to build on and said: “Our defence was exceptional and it gives us a lot to build on and a lot to work on. It’s really our silly errors, the little knock-ons and a string of penalties, stupid penalties to work on. It’s not down to the referee’s interpretation, it’s down to us being stupid – not rolling away maybe, getting too involved in stuff off the ball, it’s all stuff we can work on and change ourselves.

“Results can come down to a penalty here and there. In the last five or ten minutes, on the far side of the pitch, we gave away four or five in a row and they just popped the ball into the corner and put the pressure back on us, which meant we had to play out from 20 metres in front of our own line which is not what you want to do. If we can reverse those penalties, we can hopefully get some wins.”