Worthing RFC captain James Arthur’s weekly column (October 14)

With changes again to the side with Steve May out injured, Finlay had to move into the second row, Sam Hewick came into the back row and with my body not recovering from the previous week’s game (despite the physio’s best efforts) I had to sit this one out, which is not the easiest thing to do.

It meant a welcome return to first-team rugby for Rob Smith, who has had a long lay-off through injury and Jamie Redmayne took over as captain.

We had beaten Southend at home on the opening day of the season last year but then were soundly beaten at their place at the end of the season. So, with honours even for the meantime, we went into this game full of confidence.

The game itself was fragmented and littered with penalties. Both sides fell foul of the referee and a number of yellow cards were issued, this eventually led to one Raider receiving his second yellow card and being sent to the stands permanently.

The game didn’t start well with Southend going over in the third minute and we also lost Richard Briggs to a shoulder injury.

Despite all this, we performed well. The scrum was functioning and the backs looked dangerous. This meant that after some solid pressure, Southend were shown their first yellow card, and the resulting scrum laid the platform for a well-worked try.

Again, after some good phases of play, we managed to force Southend into committing more indiscretions, resulting in another yellow card. Unfortunately, once Southend were back to full strength and a Raider in the bin, we conceded two more tries before the break.

We were still creating chances and causing problems for the opposition but we were just unable to covert them.

The second half started badly with a second yellow card, resulting in the red card, and Southend went over for a bonus point try.

We dug in deep and showed great team spirit and belief to get ourselves back into the game and when Jamie went over, there was hope of stealing a victory.

But it wasn’t to be, Southend scored again and although we forced a penalty try at the end, it wasn’t enough and we went down 28-36.

Although we lost, there are a lot of positives to take from the game. There are again things we need to improve on and we will look at those this week at training before making the trip to Canterbury.

The other results this week saw wins for Ealing, Dings, Taunton, Jersey, Old Albanians, Shelford and Richmond.

Canterbury on Saturday is another tough encounter and we ask that as many of you that can make it, do, to give the boys as much support as possible.