Jersey sink Raiders with late tries

A LATE flourish from Jersey at Roundstone Lane on Saturday gave them a flattering 37-10 win over Worthing Raiders Rugby Club.

It was all to play for up until the last 10 minutes, before the National 2 South second-placed side scored three late tries to seal a bonus point and what appears a convincing victory, despite Raiders matching them for the majority of the game.

A Rob Smith try and Matt McLean conversion, adding to an earlier McLean penalty, put Raiders 10-9 ahead in the 36th minute.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But a converted penalty try on the stroke of half-time, after Smith had received a yellow card, handed the visitors a 16-10 lead at the break.

Despite a fairly even second half, Jersey eventually broke the Worthing defence in the closing stages to unjustly escape with a 27-point winning margin.

Raiders team manager David Hinchliffe said: “It was a shame for the boys and they were all pretty disappointed with the late scores as it made the result look more flattering than it was.

“Considering we had held them up until the 70th minute, with the only try before that being a penalty try, it was very disappointing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It was a whole team performance and Rob Smith did well as always. It was unlucky for him to get the yellow, it wasn’t anything he did wrong in particular, but we were on a team warning and the next infringement would have seen it awarded.

“We had done lots of defending and done it well, so obviously when that is the case, tiredness can sometimes set in a bit in the last few minutes.”

Jersey’s three tries came in fairly quick succession, all out wide and in the last 10 minutes from Tom Turner and David Doherty (two), with the final one coming in the last play of the game.

Raiders now face the second of a tough run of three games on Saturday when they welcome Richmond on Saturday.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Hinchliffe added: “We have Richmond at home, then Ealing away, then for the remainder of the season we have very winnable games, so we’ll see where we can go.

“It doesn’t get any easier this Saturday, as it is always a hard game with Richmond and, no doubt, it’ll be another test.”

WORTHING: Bruce, Miles, Webster, Stutchbury, McGowan, Arthur, Redmayne, Smith, Costigan, Dudley, Govett, Dunckley, Sullivan, Briggs, McLean. Subs: Hewick, Coxon-Smith, Emmett, Perkins, Marsh.