We arrived at Worthing to be told we were in the ‘far changing room’, which was code for your getting changed in a broom cupboard. It was so cosy that even Harry Potter would have said can I go back to my more spacious cupboard under the stairs…

News broke when we were warming up that the 3s side had pulled out against Uckfield and that inevitably meant that some players would drift down to the 4s and that was certainly the case! Worthing started brightly with some of the big lumps making hard ground and the pressure told when their 20 stone prop (give or take) flopped across the line. Opportunities went begging a number of times which must have made for frustrating viewing with 2 missed penalties (one from Alex and one from Chris) and some balls being spilled at key moments. Big hits were being put in left, right and centre with Ben, Al, Strap On and Lewis all contributing to making sure Worthing were repelled. Worthing were doing much the same with Frannies finding it hard to breakthrough and we found ourselves on the end of a couple of bruising hit ourselves (Alex being on the end of a rather brutal late hit that somehow didn’t result in a yellow). With a couple minutes to go before the break, a lovely pass drifted over to the Gravy Train who was one on one with a forward and dotted down in the corner.

Half Time: 5-5

We knew that we needed to get out the blocks quickly to put a marker down for the rest of the game and that we did! Some quick hands in the backs meant Lewis was this time 1 vs 2 but this is the Gravy Train we are talking about and he bundled his way over to score. We found ourselves back in the Worthing half yet again and some brilliant build up play resulted in Dave sniping his way across the whitewash. Worthing quickly reminded us that they were no push overs and got a score back. This then saw an odd phase of play that your writer didn’t really see much of but heard about it afterwards, the opposition centre gathered the ball from a Frannies fumble beat a couple of players only for Ben to slip and said centre to crash into him when on the ground, shoulder to head. Some handbags were had (not nearly to the scale of Holbrook) with the Worthing player given a red card and Ben told to lick his wounds on the sideline for 10 minutes. Unperturbed, Frannies extended their lead with Chris weaving and winding to dot down under the posts giving a little breathing space. The last 10 minutes was a puzzling encounter with uncontested scrums and errors being forced from both sides; this ended with Worthing scoring in the corner with 1 minute to go.

It was a hard fought game and one that St Francis should be very proud about. Beating a team like Worthing at home is no easy feat and this just shows how high our ceiling is. Another day at the office, bonus point secured and onto the next one!

Final Score: 15-24