RUGBY: Worthing get bonus-point victory against Westcombe Park

WORTHING Raiders Rugby Club battled through the conditions at Roundstone Lane on Saturday for a 31-19 bonus-point win over Westcombe Park.

The heavy rain and soaked pitch meant it was not such a polished performance as previous games, but more of a hard-fought win for a Worthing side missing a couple of key players of recent weeks.

Both Semi Taulava and Matt McLean were missing for Raiders but team manager David Hinchcliffe praised the team's fighting spirit after being 10 points down in the first half.

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He said: "It was nice to pull back from being behind in the first half. This season we have been a team that doesn't know when we are beat.

"We can take games right to the wire and in past seasons we haven't done that.

"Will (Green) has brought the attitude that it really isn't over until the fat lady sings, as we have picked up so many late points.

"The conditions were pretty miserable, the pitch was very slippery and the ball was like a bar of soap.

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"We made a couple of errors in the first half and took some time to settle as we had a couple of new faces into the starting line-up, due to injuries from the Ealing game.

"But it soon clicked and we got our act together and restricted them from scoring in the second half.

"It wasn't a day for slick handling, but we spent a lot of time in their half after the break. On a better day I think we would have scored a couple more tries, and even conceded a couple less."

Despite the soaked pitch at Roundstone Lane, Worthing took an early lead from a penalty kick by Joe Govett, but Park responded with a try.

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Mickey Pointing then put down his first try of the half, which Govett converted well in extremely difficult conditions. Pointing ran round to pick up a dropped lineout and shifted it out to the backs, he then broke round the blind-side and ran 20 metres to score.

Park, who had the wind with them, which they used to their advantage well, ran in three tries with no response from Raiders, as Douglas Abott and Chris Lewis (two) touched down, with Lee Audis converting two of the three kicks.

This put Park 19-10 ahead but another Govett penalty and Pointing try before the break put Raiders to within a point of their opponents at half-time, after an extremely entertaining 40 minutes of rugby.

Worthing, with a fresh change of kit, started quickly after the break, with effective continuity from quality line-out balls and rucks.

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And with just two minutes of the half gone, Chris Meddings' run from deep saw him go all the way to the line to touch down and put Raiders back in front.

Worthing then put Park under constant pressure and began to dominate. The visitors were forced to kick from their own half and continually surrender possession.

Worthing were tactically effective in the difficult conditions and eventually Charlie McGowan added a try, when he went over from a ruck in the right-hand corner.

Raiders continued with their assault and although Park did start to hold up the attacks, Govett completed the scoring on 67 minutes with a penalty.

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WORTHING: Dunckley, Govett, Walker, Meddings, Marsh, Dudley, Costigan, Emmett, Pointing, Bennett, Launchbury, McGowan, Arthur, Redmayne, Smith. Used subs: Fisher, May, Bruce, Rogers, Metters.

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