WORTHING EARN THE REDS' RESPECT

WORTHING'S run ended where they had been before, in 1988 and lost 21-6 '” in the heartland of Cornish rugby on Saturday. But they confirmed the danger Redruth feared from them and the Cornish spent the last 10 minutes only a converted try ahead and willing the final whistle. Worthing's consolation was prize money they expect to be £4,400.
By The Newsroom
Published 7th Oct 2004, 13:46 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 01:00 BST

Reds were fourth one division higher in National Three, victorious in four of their last five home Powergen Cup games played, and both teams were unbeaten. Worthing coach Mick Orton said their main object, apart from trying to win, was to measure up as closely as possible to their opponents to gauge their own potential.

He elaborated: "We learned where we need to be and I was very pleased how we came back in the second half. There were more positives than negatives. Their No 10 ran the game and they did a bit against us in the scrummage, which we sorted out. And I thought we did match them at one point in the game. We never gave in, we played as a team, and our defence was very good in the second half.

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"I felt we were gaining the upper hand at the end but we needed that a bit earlier. We gave them too much respect and, although we knew they could, they came out and started much more expansively than I expected early on. that left us playing catch-up rugby and at their level that's too much of a mountain to climb. We've now got to conquer first-half nerves.

"And that against teams from the next division, if we start at the right tempo and meet these guys '” and "front up" to them '” we could possibly live with them in a division above. But we'd have to play 80 minutes of rugby at a higher tempo. And if we want to play in that division above, we'd better start playing that way now.

"We showed our tenacity, character and team spirit. Now I want that for 80 minutes, too. But this was only our fifth game of the season and we're still just looking at it. I'd rather we had our problems now, early in the season, when we can address them."

Both sides scored three tries but Reds stand-off Mark Scrivener, awarded Man of the Match, kicked three conversions and three penalties, to Ben Coulson's single conversion and two penalties.

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Reds kicked down their famous slope towards Hellfire Corner and inside three minutes Nathan Pedley touched down with Worthing stretched to the limit. Six minutes later, scrum-half Mike Imrie's blindside break set up a Coulson chip for left-wing Gavin Stephens to make it 7-5.

Hellfire Cornered, Worthing conceded an offside penalty and two catch-and-drive tries from five-metre line-outs, notched by James Lancaster and Nathan Pascoe. Worthing lock Dan Venter was sin-binned and they were 24-5 down.

New Kiwi prop Jori Nacagilevu firmed up Worthing's pack and two Coulson kicks to one Scrivener made it 27-11 by half-time.

Two Worthing scrums against the head confirmed the turnaround and just when they were defending on the rack, they got a 95-metre Coulson interception try.

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New Zealander No 8 Rowan O'Gorman's backchat sent a Redruth penalty 10 metres deeper and ultimately undid Worthing. Scrivenor kicked it, though O'Gorman, assited by Imrie drove over and Coulson converted for the final scoreline.

WORTHING: Coulson; Butler, Taylor, Stewart-McDonald, Stephens; Dudley, Imrie; Storer, Alcott, Bennett, Venter, B.McGowan, Kirchell, Levett, O'Gorman. Bench: Nacagilevu (Bennett 26), Phillips (Kirchell 47), Mills, De Boer, Outen, Quirk, Cruz. Att: 1,200.

Worthing resume in London 1 at home to Sutton & Epsom on Saturday.