Worthing Raiders 7 Sevenoaks 36 - Saturday 7th December 2024
Sevenoaks travelled to Roundstone Lane, Worthing this weekend. Another intense match was expected with the teams sitting in twelfth and thirteenth positions in the league. With some momentum behind following the Westcombe Park win, Sevenoaks was keen to push on for a second win in as many games.
With amber weather warnings in place the game was played in wet and very wet conditions.
Raiders kicked off playing towards the southern end of the ground, with the wind at their backs. Fortunately, the rain relented before kick-off, but the underfoot conditions were less than ideal. Sevenoaks took numerous opportunities to box the ball high, often forcing errors, or not making much ground as the wind forced the ball back towards the kicker, sometimes back in to the hands of an advancing Sevenoaks player.
The hosts were guilty of giving away penalties at regular intervals, thus enabling the visitors to kick to touch and then make use of their well-organised driving maul.
Raiders tried to run the ball when in possession when maybe they would have benefitted more from long kicks down the field. As an onlooker, it was surprising that the conditions were not utilised more by the home team in this half!
The game was understandably scrappy with both sides making handling errors under pressure.
The visitors opened the scoring with a penalty from in front of the posts after twenty-five minutes. 0 – 3.
The advantage was almost lost immediately as a Raiders player charged down an attempted box kick, but was unable to pick the ball up cleanly and the chance was gone.
As half time approached, the hosts lost a couple of players to injury and Sevenoaks had to also rotate players after what looked like a shoulder injury and a dead leg!
After thirty-nine minutes of pretty dour rugby Sevenoaks snuck in a converted try on the stroke of half time with Ethan Jones collecting the run down ball courtesy of Harry Barker. Ben Adams boot out smarting the Storm for the extra points! 0-10.
Half time score: Worthing Raiders 0 Sevenoaks 10
Worthing changed strip at half time, favouring a lighter yellow jersey making it clearer who was on which side as the darkness set it, intensified by the leaden sky!
Sevenoaks looked to capitalise on the wind coming from their aft, heads up kicking in to space winning important yards in tough conditions
The second half was dominated by the Sevenoaks, who gained advantage from high, long kicks that were extremely difficult to field cleanly in the conditions.
The half started badly for the hosts when Sevenoaks scored a converted try within a minute of the restart, 0-17.
With only seven minutes gone they scored another converted try to stretch their lead to 0-24. They followed with an unconverted try five minutes later. The lead was now 0-29 and the game was largely in control for the Sevenoaks team.
It was almost halfway through the half before Raiders were able to take play deep into Sevenoaks’ territory. They achieved this through good interplay between forwards and backs. The Sevenoaks’s defence was firing on all cylinders but when a Raider put a neat grubber kick through to the try line, a quick responding Sevenoaks player got to the ball first. The hosts were awarded a five-metre scrum but were unable to convert the situation into points.
Two more injuries hit Worthing and when Sevenoaks scored again after twenty-eight minutes the lead had become insurmountable in the time left in the game - Barney Stone getting the job done following the break out by Brayden Porteous. 0-36.
During the final five minutes Raiders played their best rugby and on the stroke of full time a good move was finished off with a burst through to score under the posts, duly converted before the referee called time with the score at 7-36.
Full time score: Worthing Raiders 7 Sevenoaks 36
Man of the Match: Scott Sedgwick
Referee: Peter Buchanan
Attendance 275
