Rams prove their Worthing with victory against Raiders

With both teams coming off the back of defeats last week, Redingensians Rams and Worthing Raiders had everything to prove in their West Sussex showdown.

Worthing were certainly more immediately assertive in their play. A frantic first half hour saw Rams suffer against the Raiders, conceding a penalty almost immediately to the boot of Worthing’s Matt McLean.

Although Rams found some consolation in Spike Chandler scoring a penalty of his own 10 minutes later, it was difficult to ignore the hosts’ domination in possession and participation. The first 30 minutes demonstrated some of the most passive rugby that Rams have shown so far this season and, despite standout performances from Tom Vooght and Steve Bryant, the Redingensians team were pushed around by their opposing numbers.

This was exemplified after Worthing’s Perkins made a fantastic run through centre field. He perfectly offloaded to George Montgomery in the number 10 shirt, who went on to score a try in the 16th minute. This was converted by Mclean for an early lead for the hosts and a pessimistic start for the visitors.

It was difficult to find any saving graces in Rams’ opening demonstration. Lacklustre lineouts and unsteady, frantic open play made frustrating viewing for spectators. Worthing narrowly missed two opportunities to score after assaulting the left hand side, Rams relying in equal parts on luck and the defensive prowess of Bryant, Rossiter and Guttridge.

Unable to find a clearing kick that would stay on the pitch, Rams spent the majority of this time stood against their try line. Worthing were keen to capitalise on this and, after struggling against Rams’ defence, eventually found their opening at the end of a rucking rally with Liam Perkins scoring a try and McLean cleaning up the extras.
This marked the turning point for Rams, who looked far more confident after the reset. They made their first real threats against the Worthing try line in the closing 10 minutes of the half and, after passing wing-to-wing down the line, gave Rossiter his Strictly-Come-Dancing-worthy waltz around 4 Worthing players and try. Chandler delivered on the conversion to give the half time score of 17-10, a far more generous result than Rams’ early performance may have warranted.

The second half saw a far more even performance between the two teams. While Worthing still looked threatening, having one of their tries held up early in the half, Rams proved to be ample opposition with renewed vigour against the opposition.
After a runaway maul and Sam Guttridge’s break through 2 players, Vooght started a scoring streak for Rams. In the next 10 minutes, the visitors would score another two tries; the first as a penalty decision which also sent Worthing’s Perkins to the sin bin for repeated obstruction, the second after Ben Henderson broke away from a driving maul and offloaded to Illingworth and then Corrigan for the try. These two were both converted by Chandler for a healthy Rams lead.

Immediately after the reset, Worthing got their revenge with some ruthless high-octane rucks awarding Rob Smith with a converted try. These huge hits opened up a hole in the visitors’ defence, and will continue to leave a hole in Rams’ team sheet with Matt Weller being sent to hospital with a broken arm.

Rams’ defence, particularly with the work of Amor, Marris and Bryant, managed to hold off a nail-biting final 10 minutes of Worthing attacks and provide a final score of 24-29 to Rams. It was a well-earned victory and deserved comeback for Rams; one which earned praise from director of coaching Mike Tewkesbury who commented on Rams’ mid-game rejuvenation by saying ‘in every game of rugby something goes wrong but you don’t let your head go down; you get out there and fight and that’s exactly what these men did today’.

Next week sees Rams back at home for their last National League 2 South fixture before the new year. They face off against London Irish Wild Geese for their second meeting this season. It will prove to be an exciting game against an opposition who, although sit 5 places below Rams on the league table, are coming from an incredible 29-21 victory against Redruth this week.

Report by Matt McCrory
Photo by Tim Pitfield