ANY camera close-ups of the Raiders bench in the final throes of this thriller at Shaftesbury Park will surely have homed in on the pained facial expressions.

Because for the best part of 10 minutes Dings threw everything they could at the visitors try-line, only for Raiders to heroically hold out and win on the road for the second week in a row.

‘Winning ugly’ the coach called it, and Jordan Reynolds was playing a big under-statement card when he said a day later: ‘it was a pretty close encounter’.

In truth, Dings might so easily have won, but that was largely down to the mistakes an otherwise dominant Raiders offered up.
‘We are bringing a lot of these momentum swings on ourselves,’ said the coach.
‘The opposition are making the lost of our silly mistakes; it is a bad habit of ours at the moment.’
Reynolds wasn’t as far as saying it was not something he expected to eradicate overnight, but ‘it was an underlying factor in the first three games’.

Back at the start, Raiders had started very promisingly and after five minutes of pressure from the away side their reward came in the form of a score from the impressive new second rower Oscar Baird who powered his way over the Dings try line taking four of the opposition players with him. Owen Thomas slotted over the extra two points and soon afterwards a Dings penalty gave Thomas a chance to add to the Raiders score. Unfortunately the ball drifted wide, his only miss of the day.

Raiders continued their good start with more forays into the Dings territory but a home side interception sent them downfield and a subsequent Raiders penalty allowed the home side to go for their own catch and drive move which resulted in a try for lock Danny Hodge. The conversion was missed but it was soon forgotten as Raiders produced a wild back pass which sent the Crusaders up the park for another try. This time prop Ash Challenger barged over and with Luke Arscott converting the home team were 12-7 ahead.

With both teams willing to play a running game, Raiders again found themselves in the Crusaders half and this time the visiting forwards and backs combined well to set up prop Jacob Pinkney who drove his way over the line under the posts.
Thomas duly obliged with the two extra points and he soon followed it up with a successful penalty for a 17-12 lead.

Not to be denied, Dings won a Raiders lineout and ran in try from Marcus Brooker.
The conversion attempt was missed and on the stroke of half time Raiders regained the lead with another Thomas penalty.

It was then that Raiders went to sleep and with knock-ons and penalties creeping into their game it gifted the Crusaders a third try from Tom Anderson. Arscott added the conversion and soon afterwards, following their lineout, the home side spun the ball both ways across the pitch for the overlapping Matt Jones to trot over. Although the conversion was missed Dings now sat on a healthy 31-20 advantage.

It was worrying time for Raiders but they were helped out a little when Crusaders lost a player to a yellow card for a spike tackle. From the ensuing lineout Raiders’ Dan Morgan blind side run and pass to Tom Ceillam sent the hooker over for a smart try.
Thomas converted and it was now 31-27.

Buoyed by the try Raiders again found themselves with another opportunity to attack following another Crusaders penalty.
New centre Ethan Smith beautifully cut the line with the ball in hand and drifted pass the Crusaders defence for a fine try.
Thomas added the much needed two points and it was 31-34.

There was still plenty of time for Dings to turn it around but Raiders’ defence held out magnificently as the home side battered the visitors’ line. And with the clock running out the Raiders cleared the ball for a well fought win which lifts them to fourth in the early season table with another away trip to Barnstaple this weekend.

Tries: Pinkney, Ceillam, Baird, Smith
Conv: Thomas 4
Pens: Thomas 2.