Rugby returns: Worthing Raiders beaten at Barnes
Raiders’ selection was hampered by a few pre-season injuries and the non-availability of dual-registered players.
New signings Tom Hatch, Will Hoare, Jackson Clark, Rob Ure and Joe Knight were all involved on a warm, dry afternoon on a firm pitch.
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Hide AdRaiders were quickly into their stride, scoring their first try after four minutes. From a scrum on their own 22m line Matt McLean fed the ball to Jack Forrest who made a clean break then passed to Curtis Barnes who outpaced the cover defence to touch down. McLean converted.
After ten minutes Barnes opened their account with a penalty but a few minutes later the visitors threatened, but knocked on.
The rest of the half belonged to Barnes, who scored four converted tries before half-time. Iago Davies replaced Kieran Leeming ten minutes before half time and Raiders continued to create chances. A bludgeoning run from Frank Taggart ended with him being held up over the line.
Being 31-7 down at the break, Raiders introduced Elliott Luke and Jackson Clark for the start of the second half.
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Hide AdThere followed some shambolic play from both sides as neither could gain dominance.
After six minutes of the half Will Hoare was yellow-carded. But he home side were only able to add a penalty to their score.
Hoare returned and Joe Knight replaced Rob Ure.
From a scrum McLean sent the ball wide left to Curtis Barnes who returned it to McLean, who showed a clean pair of heels to the would be tacklers and scored wide on the left. He converted - 34-14.
Raiders finished strongly and scored the final points of the day when Jerome Rudder sprinted in from 30m to touch down. Maclean again converted.
With a good week of training and more players available for selection, Raiders head to Dorking on Saturday in good spirits.