It took little more than five minutes for this drama to start wearing at the heartstrings of home supporters when Albanians lost possession almost on the Worthing line with a try seemingly in the offing. 100 metres later flying Raiders left wing Harry Barlow touched down for the first of his three tries; and this hattrick was only interrupted by Kiba Richards, ex centre, now No 8 who dotted down with eighteen minutes gone.

Matt Mclean converted Richards’ effort and Barlow’s third so that just after the end of the first quarter OAs stared into the abyss at 24-0. Even Wales hadn’t faced such enormity against France a few weeks ago!

Somehow the hosts came to realise their scrum and lineout was working and just maybe this could be used as a base to claw back at least part of this enormous deficit.

Charlie Hughes started the fightback on the half hour and Tobias Munday added two more tries before the break, Dan Watt converting twice. It’s not often 43 points are scored in a single half and even more amazing that the two sides appeared almost to take it in 20 minute turns to tilt at each other’s line.

In perfect keeping with the events of the first period Harry Morgan notched the bonus point try five minutes later and, as bemused supporters from both sides rubbed their eyes and wondered vaguely if the drink had been spiked, McLean nudged his side in front once more with a penalty.

The hour struck and so did Tim Bond restoring the slight home advantage, improved ten minutes later by Watt’s sixth OA try. Ten minutes to go and an unlikely seven points profit seemed to be the final reckoning for Albanians. Visiting outside centre Jack Forrest had other ideas and he crossed close enough for McLean’s final equalising kick.

You can’t criticise the entertainment value of an eleven try encounter but nobody queued up at the end to take the prize in the guess the score competition!

Brian Quinn,

Press & Publicity