RUGBY: Green raring to go after Wasps test
WORTHING Raiders Rugby Club coach Will Green cannot wait for the start of the National 2 South season on Saturday after the success of Raiders' pre-season friendly with Wasps A.
Worthing lost the friendly 33-3 to a Wasps side which included several Academy players on Sunday, but more than 1,500 fans were inside Roundstone Lane as the Premiership giants came to town.
Green said: "It was a good day for the club and, from a playing perspective, it was just what we needed.
"That's the level our players should be aspiring to.
"From the club's point of view, the day was just fantastic. To have 1,500 people there – I'm delighted for everyone and all the playing staff are grateful to everyone at the club for all the work they do.
"Hopefully, these people will come back to watch us during our league season now. You don't have to go up to London to watch quality rugby, there's a decent standard on the south coast at a quarter of the price."
Raiders get their league season underway at home to Westcombe Park on Saturday (3pm kick-off) and Green said: "Having only one pre-season game may be seen as a bit of a risk but we've got such a long season to come that I didn't think we needed to have two or three friendlies.
"We only had one last year as well and we'll just see how we go."
Green is keeping his aims for the season close to his chest but said: "They're very similar to last year. We'll look to remain competitive. I've got my own personal targets but I'm not going to come out and say them publicly.
"I'm looking forward to our first game against Westcombe Park. Now we've got pre-season out the way, we can get stuck into competitive rugby.
"Westcombe are a very physical side and they'll be looking to get off to a good start after they had, for their standards, a disappointing season last year. But we'll be looking to get off to a good start, too."
Matt Miles, Finlay Coxon Smith and Stuart Pearham are new faces at Raiders for the upcoming season, while Joe Launchbury and Ben Maidment, who were with the club last year, are now with Wasps and both played on Sunday.
Joe Govett and Pearham both missed early penalties for Raiders before Wasps' Will Robinson went over between the posts and then converted his own try.
Pearham missed another penalty before Govett kicked one over five minutes before half-time.
Wasps increased their lead before the break, though, when Anthony Brennan dived over and Robinson converted.
Wasps moved further ahead 20 minutes into the second half. Ben Maidment, who started the game for Worthing, went on for Wasps in the second half and fed Charlie Davies. He was stopped just short of the line but Jonah Holmes went over and Robinson landed the conversion to make it 21-3.
Holmes soon got his second try, followed by Maidment going over, which Robinson converted, to make the final score 33-3.
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Weather for Worthing
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
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