FIFTH ALL BUT SECURED

ANOTHER full set of points in the bag, but Westcliff took a long while to be blown away in game 22 of the 26-match league programme.
And the fact that it took so long to secure the victory was clearly a sense of irritation to head coach when he summed up the performance after the final whistle.
‘We were easily the far better team, but we missed so many chances,’ he said.
‘In the first half we bottled so many chances. We should have been 40 points ahead at the break.
‘The lads said we even scored three times in that half but the referee was not in the position to see them.’
With the win fifth spot in National Three London & South East seems virtually assured.
Shelford took a pounding at home to TJs and the gap between fifth and sixth has now opened to 11 points.
Early on Luke Sayer and Malcolm Barnes nearly early carved out a try in the corner, but Barnes's foot was adjudged to have gone into touch.
Then, minutes later, Jones dropped the ball 5m short with acres of space in the corner, although the pass was not great.
But Raiders soon got the try their domination warranted, Sam Steventon blasting his way through and just short of the line slipping a one metre pass to Matt Thomas to score. His namesake converted and Raiders were away.
Westcliff recovered well though and as the half wore on asked more and more questions of the home defence and after Thomas had narrowly missed with a 40m penalty attempt Raiders again parked themselves on the visitors line and seemed sure to score.
They didn't.
The scoreline was just 7-0 at the interval and just four minutes into the second Westcliff leveled via a catch and drive move.
Raiders responded positively and Dan Hill was soon diving his way over and with Owen Thomas converting the seven-point gap had been restored.
Westcliff then completed a second catch and drive move, but with Dudman missing from the touchline Raiders hung on to the lead.
Not for long though.
With Ned Brown in the sin-bin for a slightly late touchline tackle, Dudman kicked the penalty to put them in front at 15-14.
Raiders responded like a good side does.
They did not panic and after one push for the line ended with a knock-on underneath the Westcliff crossbar, the visitors failed to totally clear their lines and as Raiders came back at them, Luke Sayer was high tackled and up went the arm of the referee to signal a penalty which came to realisation only after Owen Thomas had failed with his drop-kick attempt.
The stand-off now kicked for the corner and the line out yielded a catch and drive try for Tom Ceillam to finish off.
Thomas's kick struck an upright to stay out and with a handful of minutes remaining Raiders were back in front, 19-15.
Then came the game's best move.
Superb handling through the Raiders backs put winger Sam Whitehead in sight of the line 10m out in the same corner.
Whitehead slipped a super pass inside to centre Luke Jones and he timed his run perfectly to score under the posts.
Thomas nailed the extras and at 11 points ahead the game was safe, even though scored a third try in stoppage time.
‘They [Westcliff] didn’t offer much around the park and caught us out with a couple of catch and drives, but that was it,’ the head coach summed up later.

TEAMS
Raiders: Craine, Ceillam, Steventon, Hillier, Merrien, Hill, Martin, M. Thomas; Nixon, O. Thomas, Barnes, Brown, Jones, Whitehead, Sayer.
Replacements: Skovronek, Mercadal, Campbell.
Westcliff: Brown, Hopkins, Binneman, Dartnell, Edwards, Scoggins, Marsh, Maloney; Branch, Whiting, Merrick, Tupuola, Reynolds, Roskams, Dudman.
Replacements: Lane, Jobling, MacIntyre.
Referee: L. Biggs.

PRIOR to the game the ground stood in a minute’s silence to mark the passing of club great Chris Day, who died the previous week.
It was an impeccably observed and touching tribute to the former Siam Cup player and 1st XV coach.
A full tribute to Chris appeared in the match programme.
Earlier in the day Jersey won back the Investec Inter-Island Trophy by 35 points to 20.