Canterbury tale of woe: Worthing Raiders lose their way – and lose the match

With most matches in the division postponed, the points they gained from the trip to Kent took them up a place, but that was where the good news ended. And with at least another four added to the injury list, the squad will have to step up this week for the visit next Saturday of Bury St Edmunds.

After an excellent victory the previous week in very wet, muddy conditions the weather had turned much colder and the ground once again became frozen leading up to the game away at Canterbury.

Although by Saturday the grounds were thawing a little, this game was switched to the artificial pitch at a local school. Not many players prefer the artificial surface as it appears more injuries seem to occur on them. This was no exception with both sides losing players to injury during the game. Raiders lost four, which obviously put a lot of pressure on the bench players.

Due to injuries from last week and unavailability, five changes had been made from the side that played against Rochford. Missing were Ethan Clarke, Jamie Ure, Frank Taggart, Charlie Clare and Alex Davies. Their replacements on the day were Jackson Clark, Tom Sunray, Harry Nelson, Joe Knight and Tom Price, making his debut.

With plenty of logistical problems for both teams with the move to the artificial pitch the game was started by the visitors and was initially very scrappy with neither team coming to terms with the playing surface.

After six minutes Curtis Barnes was yellow carded after mistiming his leap for the ball and making contact with the Canterbury player already in the air.

Tom Bowen returned a Canterbury high kick with a blistering run that split the defence, unfortunately the attack was snuffed out near the home side’s try line.

With only another minute played Canterbury conceded a penalty and Sam Evans kicked deep into the Canterbury 22 for a Raiders’ lineout. A clean catch and drive followed and Fraser Bruce touched down for the visitors’ first try of the afternoon. Matt McLean was unsuccessful with the conversion. Raiders had a 0-5 lead after 15 minutes.

Ten minutes later Canterbury scored a converted try to take the lead 7-5. The visitors had total domination in the scrum but the referee penalised them more than once as the Canterbury scrum were shunted backwards. Difficult for those watching to understand.

Evans was injured and replaced by Price after 21 minutes. By this time three players had left the game injured and the game had very little continuity. There were a lot of stoppages for injury and lectures from the referee.

After 37 minutes Barnes took advantage of a broken play situation and evaded several tackles to score his first try of the afternoon. McLean converted and the visitors had a 7-12 lead.

Canterbury came straight back and were held up over the line. The relief from the goal line drop out was short lived as the home side scored a converted try to retake the lead at 14-12.

Joe Knight replaced the injured Sunray and shortly after Canterbury received a yellow card for a high tackle. From the penalty Raiders kicked to the corner and Dan Sargent touched down following a catch and drive from the lineout. McLean converted and re-established the lead at 14-19.

Half time came after53 minutes. It had been scrappy generally with a sprinkling of quality rugby. Although the visitors took a five-point lead into the break they had been guilty of making too many simple errors and choosing poor options at critical moments. Half-time: Canterbury 14 Worthing Raiders 19

Canterbury restarted the game and Raiders were quickly on the attack. The visitors set up a driving maul and when the home side pulled it down on their goal line they received a yellow card but should it have been a penalty try?

With six minutes of the half played Raiders scored their bonus point try after exerting pressure on or very near to the Canterbury try line. Curtis Barnes scored the try after excellent work in the backs that saw Jack Forrest make a half break that enabled him to feed the scoring pass. Matt McLean converted and the visitors extended their lead to 14-26.

In the early part of the half the visitors dominated and after good handling from backs and forwards a sweeping move ended with Matt McLean being stopped a few metres from the line. At the break down a penalty was awarded to Raiders and from the resulting lineout Dan Sargent scored his second try from another well-constructed catch and drive. Again Matt McLean converted to establish what looked like a winning margin of 14-33 with less than half an hour to play.

Injuries continued to occur and the Raiders’ bench was emptied. With 20 minutes left to play Fraser Bruce was yellow carded for a technical offence.

With all of the injuries and possibly the lack of training due to the weather and pitch conditions at Roundstone Lane in the last couple of weeks the visitors started to fall off the tackles and allow the home side to break the Raiders’’ defensive line regularly. Canterbury seemed to raise their game, helped on by their vociferous supporters.

There now followed a passage of rugby Raiders will long have nightmares about as Canterbury totally took control of the game and hit them with five unanswered tries in the final quarter of the game. They were unable to stem the Canterbury tide and it was they who ran out winners at 43-33.

For three quarters of the game Raiders were comfortably in control but sport is unpredictable and that final 20 minutes changed all that had gone before.

Referee: Katherine Ritchie

Scorers: Tries: Bruce, Barnes (2), Sargent (2); Cons: McLean (4)

Team: Jackson Clark 2. Elliott Luke 3. Dan Sargent 4. Jack Lake 19. Fraser Bruce 6. Will Hoare 7. Tom Sunray 8. Liam Perkins – Captain 9. Will Rigelsford 10. Sam Evans 11. Curtis Barnes 12. Harrison Sims 13. Jack Forrest 14. Tom Bowen 15. Matt McLean. Bench: 16. Tom Hatch 17. Caleb Ashworth 20. Harry Nelson 22. Tom Price 23. Joe Knight.