Channel crossing is fruitless as Worthing Raiders lose in Guernsey

There were five changes from the previous week because of injury and unavailability, making selection a challenge.

Ed Hodson and Ben Featherstone were making their debuts.

Raiders managed some early pressure with a few opportunities but some good defence mixed with a few errors kept them from scoring.

A high ball led to a Worthing player and a Guernsey man competing in the air.

With the Guernsey player higher, his momentum took him over the Worthing player, landing on shoulder, but a yellow card was shown to Tom Bowen.

Guernsey then went into Worthing 22m and scored.

Guernsey went on to score three more tries from a mix of good close-quarter play and effective running with the ball.

Just before half-time two penalties for Worthing were kicked into the corner and from the lineout, a catch and drive led to Grant Gatford (who at 47 years old is thought to be the oldest player in the league) going over for a try.

Tom Derrick missed the conversion so at the interval it was 28-5 to Guernsey.

After the break, pressure from Worthing led to a scrum following a Guernsey yellow.

Good phase play led to Frank Taggart offloading to Tom Sunray who ran in.

The conversion by Tom Derrick made it 28-12.

A missed touch from Guernsey saw the ball go infield. Bowen went on an arching run and fed Pete Drummond on the right wing – and he dodged three tackles to score. A missed conversion meant it was 28-17.

A Guernsey break led to yellow for Cam Dobinson on 55 minutes and Guernsey kicked a penalty for a 31-17 lead.

A high clearance from the Raiders’ line on 64 minutes was chased by James Maher.

He and a Guernsey player went for it and the Guernsey player landed on his shoulder, bringing a yellow for Maher.

A penalty kick put Guernsey 34-17 up. On 66 minutes a clearance kick from Raiders was gatherd by Guernsey outside their 22 and run back in for a converted try.

There was Worthing pressure at the end but they could not get over the line to score and it remained 41-17.

Four minutes from the end a penalty to Raiders was awarded but no yellow card for Guernsey and the penalty was missed.

Raiders: 1. Grant Gatford 2. Will Gearing-Grief 3. Ben Featherstone 4. Alfie Ambrose 5. Dan Macadams 6. Tom Sunray 7. Joe Knight 8. Frank Taggart 9. Cam Dobinson 10. Louis Ellis 11. Peter Drummond 12. Harrison Sims 13. Tom Derrick 14. Harry Forrest 15. Tom Bowen. Bench: 16. Fin Glass 17. Harry Alexander 18. Ed Hodson 19. Charlie Spencer.

Raiders are 13th and will look for better fortunes when they host Old Albanian this Saturday.