Worthing RFC captain James Arthur’s weekly column (September 23)

The second home fixture of the season saw us facing the newly promoted Old Albanians. They have started the season with two wins and weren’t to be underestimated.

There were a few changes to the side this week with Steve May starting in the second row, Ben Dudley returning to 10, new signing Richard Briggs made his first appearance on the wing, Matt McLean appeared in the centres, and Joe Govett moved into full-back.

We started the game strongly, taking the lead after only a few minutes of play with a try from backrower Finlay. Unfortunately, we didn’t capitalise on this good start and through silly penalties let them back into the game.

From here, the game turned scrappy. When we decided to play rugby we created chances and as a result we did manage to score two more tries, one of which was a penalty try after the OAs fullback was adjudged to deliberately knock the ball on, so we went into half time 19-11 up.

We let OAs back into the game with some sloppy defending and basic mistakes to allow them to come back to 19-18.

We then got the bonus point try from Matt after some fantastic work in the centres from Greg, and two penalties from Matt took us clear.

But once again Albanians came back into it, scoring a try and applying a large amount of pressure right up to the final whistle.

It was pleasing that the defence held and we dug in deep towards the end to secure the win.

It was a good, hard-fought win with a bonus point and it’s very pleasing that we have claimed 10 points from our two home games. However, last year one of our best qualities was our defensive abilities.

In the last two games we have conceded six tries, which is too many. I’m sure a focus of training this week will be the improvement of this area.

In a round-up of the other scores, Henley and Jersey have continued their good starts to the season.

A close game between Taunton and Richmond saw Taunton come away with a one-point victory. Ealing and Southend produced the first draw of the season and our opponents this week, Hinckley, suffered another loss.

While Hinckley have yet to win a game, we are not going to take this game lightly. It is a long trip to make and we need to maintain focus to ensure our third victory of the season and see this first month of fixtures off on a high.