RUGBY: Worthing captain James Arthur's weekly column (December 31)

Reflecting back on my first 13 games as Worthing captain, I am pleased to say that we are in a better situation than we were in last year, which is always nice to be able to report.

We have a number of young players coming thorough that are starting to build an exciting new team.

As with every team throughout the leagues, we have been plagued with injury and I would like to thank, once again, our support team. They rarely get the recognition they deserve and, without them, a number of us would not be able to play each week. We all very much appreciate the time and effort they give to each of us.

Throughout the year, we have had moments of brilliance and times of absolute shocking play. I am pleased to say we are coming through this and starting to find some consistency.

Worthing have always been known for a strong forwards pack, which is much the same this year. And we are starting to develop a dangerous back line, but it is our defensive play that is the most impressive and has meant we have the third best defensive record in the league.

This is a credit to all the players and the coaching staff. This side of Christmas we must now focus on capitalising on our chances.

We have made the majority of our long journeys away now, with only Clifton and Lydney remaining, and we hope to be able to use this to our advantage.

The league this season is very close. We are sitting seventh, but a win or a loss can see you go up into mid-table or down to third from bottom.

I have said all the way through that every game is a must-win and this just highlights that fact.

Our first match of the new year is on Saturday at home to Westcombe Park.

We met them first time around in the second game of the season. The match was fast-paced and exciting throughout, but, sadly, we came away with a narrow defeat.

We are looking forward to playing them at home, in what will surely be another tough and exciting game.

I would finally like to thank all of you for supporting the club and hope to see and hear as many of you as possible in the second half of the season.

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