Worthing Raiders secure much-needed win over Hammersmith and Fulham

Despite the poor weather conditions, a good crowd of 250-plus were in attendance to witness an entertaining match.

Raiders should have won more comfortably, spurning several gilt-edged chances.

Again, this young, injury ravished squad played really well for periods of the game but were inconsistent and thus unable to dominate for the full 80 minutes.

MoM was Luke Gill.

After a good start to the season, Raiders have failed to maintain the winning habit.

On their visit to Stags the previous week Raiders picked up another couple of injuries to key players, Regin Pratt and Joel Andrews, neither of whom recovered in time for this week. Matt Bosworth was also unavailable but Struan Robertson and Ethan Stone returned to the squad. A couple of hours before kick-off, Tom Adams had to pull out due to illness, Alex Perry replaced him.

With only four wins so far this season, the hosts, in eighth place, were looking to end the first half of the campaign with a win over the 11th-placed visitors.

The pitch was soft but still in excellent condition and Hammersmith kicked off towards the southern end. A strong, blustery wind was blowing across the pitch from the west but the rain held off.

Raiders started well, maintaining possession and making ground with ball in hand. After textbook approach work, going through the phases, the ball was moved wide to Will Beer on the left wing allowing him to get the first score in the corner. Sanderson was unable to convert into a strong wind.

There was no further score until the 20th minute when the hosts scored another unconverted try. This came from a first phase move in the backs from a scrum. Lewis Reed was on the end of lay to get the touchdown.

Hammersmith got themselves into the game when Raiders failed to secure the ball from the restart. This led to a converted try in the 23rd minute, closing the gap to 10-7.

Although Raiders looked comfortable, little errors were costing them the chance to extend the lead. The visitors scored another try, unconverted, to take a 12-10 lead.

Raiders skipper Elliott Luke and Ben Heber both had to leave the game due to injury.

Raiders built excellent attacks involving forwards and backs despite the tricky conditions but couldn’t quite get over the line. The closest they came was from a rampaging run from Ollie Crow who was within a couple of metres of the try line when the defence brought him down and the ball was lost.

The half ended when the hosts had a great attacking lineout, 10m from the try line, but the ball wasn’t secured and the defence was able to blot out any chance of another score.

Raiders restarted the game after the interval and were immediately on the attack. As they pushed the defence backwards, it looked like another chance to score until the ball was spilled.

With ten minutes of the half gone, the hosts developed an attack from a scrum and Tom Meyer ran a teasing line across the front of the defence before changing his angle and cutting through to touchdown. This was unconverted but Raiders led 15-12.

Raiders came close to scoring on a couple more occasions but in the 22nd minute, the hosts played some outstanding rugby in the backs, which was started by Meyer when he collected a high kick in his own half. After pacy running and handling, Austin Steele ran through unopposed for a try. Sanderson added the extras to make it 22-12.

It looked like Raiders could ease to a comfortable win, but Hammersmith soon had Raiders under plenty of pressure.

The visitors maintained the pressure on Raiders and after turning the ball over in midfield they were able to score another converted try to close the gap to 22-19.

The final five minutes were nervous as Raiders had to soak up several dangerous attacks by the visitors, but they held on for the victory.