Worthing Raiders suffer big defeat at Esher – simple errors and missed tackles take toll

Unfortunately, they couldn’t maintain this level of play throughout and simple errors and missed tackles allowed Esher to dominate for key periods and score tries in quick succession.

There were positives to take from the game with some good individual performances and the scrum and lineout again produced good, quality possession throughout the match.

It was a disappointing result but another point gained in the battle at the wrong end of the National two east table.

After an exciting and close encounter with Tonbridge Juddians the previous week Raiders travelled up to Surrey knowing they faced a tough assignment.

With Esher in second place in the league and Raiders in 12th another difficult game was on the cards.

With nine players still on the injured and unavailable list, four changes were made to the matchday squad.

Those selected to join the squad were Will Rawlinson, Ben Featherstone, Alfie Ambrose and Luke Day.

The weather leading up to the weekend was particularly cold and many games in the league were postponed because of frozen pitches.

The ground at Esher was passed fit after an early morning inspection and was actually in excellent condition despite the cold spell.

Raiders kicked off and made an encouraging start, controlling possession and almost scoring within two minutes.

But the referee decided the ball was held up over the goal line and thus a goal line drop-out was awarded to the home side.

This was quickly followed by a long-range penalty attempt by Josh Bellamy which narrowly missed.

With Worthing having failed to make the most of these early chances, Esher then hit back with two tries in six minutes, the first of which was converted, and they took a 12-0 lead.

Raiders had a penalty in the 20th minute and Bellamy kicked to touch deep in Esher’s 22m area.

From the lineout they set up a catch and drive which resulted in Dan Sargent touching down to close the gap to 12-5.

The visitors played good 15-man rugby in patches and looked capable of scoring but simple errors prevented chances from turning into points.

Esher looked dangerous in broken play with individual players making incisive breaks.

By the time the clock ticked around to 30 minutes they had scored three more tries to extend their lead to 31-5.

When things are not going for you, errors get punished and that was the case with three of the opposition scores in the first half.

Raiders ended the half with another unconverted try.

After good build up involving forwards and backs the home side was penalised and the visitors kicked to the corner.

From the lineout that followed the forwards and backs set up a maul and when it was held up a couple of metres short of the goal line Jack Doorey-Palmer peeled off and dived in at the corner to close the gap to 31-10 at the half-time break.

Raiders made two changes at half-time, Ben Featherstone and Louis Ellis replacing Balazs Magda and Harry Forrest respectively.

As in the first half it was the visitors that made the better start, producing expansive phase play when in possession and defending well when the home side had the ball.

In the 13th minute Esher conceded a penalty and Raiders kicked to touch and from the lineout scored their third try from the catch and drive.

Sargent got the touchdown for his second of the day.

With the conversion missed the score was 31-15.

Dan Macadams and Sargent were replaced by Alfie Ambrose and Grant Gatford at this point.

Despite the good start to the half, and similarly to the first half, the home side took charge and ran in four tries to stretch their lead to 55-15.

Luke Day came on for his debut for the visitors from the bench with 20 minutes to play.

From here on in Raiders were playing for a bonus point try.

During the next ten minutes they played much of their rugby deep in Esher territory.

And they were rewarded with their fourth try when Frank Taggart broke free from a ruck to score to earn the bonus point.

In doing so they closed the gap to 55-20.

Esher had the last say when they scored under the posts with the final play of the game.

Scorers: Tries: Sargent (2), Doorey-Palmer, Taggart

Raiders: 1. Balazs Magda 2. Jack Doorey-Palmer 3. Dan Sargent 4. Jack Lake 5. Dan Macadams 6. Will Gearing-Grief 7. Ed Grinsted 8. Frank Taggart 9. Cam Dobinson 10. Jack Forrest – Captain 11. Will Rawlinson 12. Harrison Sims 13. Harry Forrest 14. Tom Bowen 15. Josh Bellamy. Bench: 16. Grant Gatford 17. Ben Featherstone 18. Luke Day 19. Alfie Ambrose 20. Louis Ellis.