Cleaves brace Raiders in the

TWO tries from replacement winger Cassius Cleaves helped Worthing to a bonus-point win against Old Albanian that keeps alive their championship chances.

Despite tries from Connor Slevin, Jack Lake and Elliott Luke, stand-in head coach Luke Wallace (as Jordan Turner-Hall is away with England U20s) felt the Raiders “left a couple of points out there”.

In some ways, he was right as it was the most complete performance of the season from the Raiders, who were wearing blue and pink socks in support of Rugby Against Cancer. Everything was clicking, especially their forwards, who were unplayable at times in dominating the set-piece.

It was a line-out that set up the home side’s opening score as, out of nowhere, Frank Taggart found a gap in the OA’s defence. A quick pass to

Jack Forrest saw him open the afterburners and the only one keeping pace was Slevin for a twoon-one, and the full-back scored the first points.

It took until the 23rd minute for the Hertfordshire side to finally make an effective push inside their opponents’ half as they found space in the Worthing defence for Noot to sprint across the try line. Daniel Watt converted the added points, proving to be their final score of the game.

Just before half-time, after some solid phases and momentum for the hosts, Lake saw a gap and showed some terrific footwork that wouldn’t be amiss in TV’s Strictly Come Dancing to bypass three defenders and touchdown in his 120th game for the Raiders.

Neither side could take advantage of the end-toend opening ten minutes of the second half until Worthing returned to their dominance at the set-piece, skipping the easy penalty and going for a line-out instead.

Their confidence was richly rewarded with a