Not quite a game of two halves..........

We arrived at Worthing with a strange malaise around the squad, but I was not really sure if this was due to being well beaten by Lewes two weeks previously, or over confidence, due to the fact that the Worthing Development squad had lost all their previous encounters this season - albeit by increasingly narrow margins.
We started on a perfect day for rugby, but after only three minutes we were behind on the scoreboard - we seemed to have forgotten how to tackle!
After just 15 minutes, we were 22-0 behind (four tries down) and it looked like it was going to be a fruitless journey.
We just hadn't woken up. This was epitomised by our restart after the third Worthing try.
We kicked off, they caught the kick, passed to their speedy winger, who ran from inside his own half, slipped numerous tackles and scored almost under the posts for a relatively easy conversion.
Whilst this conversion was being taken, captain Ben Beard gave the boys some well chosen 'words of encouragement' as only a captain can - in paraphrase, saying that we were much better than this and needed to get our act together.
Five minutes later, Ben led by example picking up from a scrappy ruck ten metres off the Worthing try line to touch down, which was followed by a great conversion from Ollie Adams - the first quarter was over thankfully.
A further five minutes later, Dan Harding went on a powerful driving run to cross the whitewash for our second try. 22-12 and the tide had turned.
Just before the break, we had a momentary relapse to allow a further Worthing try on the stroke of half time.
27-12 at half time.
More words of wisdom from Ben during the interval and we really believed we could turn it around.
From the start of the second half, we went back to basics- tackle low, retain the ball on our possession and work as a team.
We witnessed some textbook tackling from Ollie Roberts - a perfect technique regardless of the size of the opponent, and similarly from Ollie Adams bringing down their big no.8.
After almost ten minutes in, we put training into practice and got the ball out to James Winter on the wing, who evaded a number of tackles to touch down. 27-17.
Five minutes later, in almost identical fashion, James touched down again and we were snapping at their heels. 27-22.
We had expected to see the Worthing heads drop as we came back at them, but to their credit they kept a strong defence and didn't crumble even though the momentum was very much with us.
After almost 25 minutes, another James, this time second row James Busby, managed to break free just inside the Worthing ten metre line and run to touch down whilst being hotly pursued by two Worthing players, including their no.8, who seemed to be hitching a ride most of the way! Suddenly the score is 27-27 and we are back on level terms. No pressure on Ollie then for the conversion attempt!
Thankfully, Ollie made the conversion and we were in front for the first time in the game - giving Ollie the Man of the Match accolade for holding his nerve! 27-29

Again to Worthing's credit, they did not throw in the towel but battled for the last ten minutes.
There was a further anxious moment when we conceded a penalty just outside out 22 with only three minutes to go, but off to the right - thankfully I was able to signal that the kick has sailed away to the left of the posts and the score remained until the final whistle.

An interesting/fraught/nail biting game of rugby where we didn't wake up until 20 minutes in.
A great reflection on the squad that they reacted, they realised what position they had allowed themselves to get into and they deserved much more, they didn't give up in any way and turned around a game that could easily have been out of their grasp.
We should never have put ourselves in that position, but hopefully a lesson learned that we have to play from the first whistle to the final whistle.

A thank you must go to Worthing for providing such spirited competition and loaning a couple of players to make it worthwhile.

A good way to end the first half of the season with winning ways - three wins from five so far.
We have a string of home games in the second half, having played four away games from five to date.