RUGBY: James Arthur's weekly column (March 4)

IN a week that saw more rain and waterlogged pitches, training consisted of video feedback from the previous week's match against Barking where, having reviewed the game, there were many positives to take out of it.

Although there were also things to improve, most notable of which was that we must convert our scoring chances into points.

Thursday's training had to be moved to The Angmering School, as to get on to the pitches at Roundstone Lane, a snorkel and flippers were needed.

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For Saturday's match at Canterbury, there were a few changes from last week. Rob Smith made his return to the starting line up as blind-side flanker and Chris Meddings came into the centre.

The online discussion forum for our league had tipped Canterbury for the win on Saturday, and in what would be a difficult away fixture and with our away form not the most consistent, you may not have been wrong to agree with this.

However, I am pleased to say we took another step forward in our development and proved a few doubters wrong.

The first half was some of the smartest rugby we've played all year.

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Playing into a strong wind and up the slope, it was important that we retained possession, kicked well, when the wind allowed, and defended aggressively.

It is a credit to the team that we went in at half-time only 11-5 down. The feeling in the changing room was that this game was there for the taking or ours to lose.

The second half started with the weather and slope now playing to our advantage. In true Worthing fashion, we scored our winning try in the closing minutes of the game.

It was a difficult away fixture and an outstanding team performance, much improved from our last encounter with Canterbury at the beginning of the season where we scraped a 20-20 draw.

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The rest of the results this week saw the expected wins, with no big surprises.

The only result that impacted our placing in the league was the home bonus-point win Shelford came away with over Bridgwater.

This win meant that, although we also won, we dropped a place with them leap-frogging us into seventh.

This Saturday we are at home to Dings, who sit seven points and one place below us.

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We are looking forward to continuing to build on the smart rugby that we are now beginning to play and seeing as many of you there to support as possible '“ in what we hope might be dryer conditions.

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