Worthing win at Hinckley

The 320-mile round trip ended happily for Worthing, after they had trailed 17-16 at half-time, and head coach Will Green said: “We were poor defensively but I was pleased with some of the individual performances.

“It was a long day and a long trip, so it was pleasing to come away with the win.

“We’re going into a hard period now, with some tough teams coming up, but everyone will keep plugging away.”

Hinckley were transferred into National 2 South as instructed to by the RFU in the summer as the most southerly club in 2 North, where they originally thought they would be playing after promotion from 3 North, which meant a long day for Raiders, who left Worthing at 9am.

Raiders were playing against the wind in the first half but took the lead on six minutes when Matt McLean kicked over a penalty.

Hinckley levelled with a penalty of their own through Guy Swaddling before a second McLean strike made it 6-3.

Hinckley got the first of the game’s 11 tries when Ben Marshall went over and Swaddling nailed a difficult kick to make it 10-6.

Worthing responded when McLean made room on the right for Joe Govett to score after excellent work by the pack.

However, Hinckley soon went back ahead when an attempted chip was charged down by Dave Howgate, who touched down and Swaddling added the extras to make it 17-11.

Worthing reduced the deficit on the stroke of half-time when Jamie Redmayne dived over in the corner but McLean was off target with the difficult conversion.

Swaddling’s penalty early in the second half increased Hinckley’s lead to 20-16 but Raiders then went ahead for the fourth time and into a lead they would not relinquish when Richard Briggs went over.

Prop Raynn Bruce’s excellent work led to McLean getting a converted try and McLean then burst through to touch down an excellent solo try, which he then converted, to take Worthing into a 35-20 lead with 24 minutes left.

Ben Avent’s unconverted try got Hinckley to within 10 points with 15 minutes left but Briggs soon restored Raiders’ 15-point lead with his second try of the afternoon.

Hinckley responded straight from the kick-off with their fourth try of the game, to get a bonus point, when Sam Greasley’s try was converted by Swaddling.

But Raiders wrapped the game up when Alex Nielsen pounced on an unforced error to kick forward and go over and McLean added the conversion to finish the game with 22 points.

WORTHING: Govett, Maslen, Briggs, McLean, Nielsen, Dudley, Marsh; Arthur, Redmayne, Coxon-Smith, Pitchford, May, Burns, Cleveland, Bruce. Subs (all used): Gue, Hewick, Webster, Costigan, Luke.