Wombles no longer Wombling Free

After a week off and a tough a way loss the Law returned to Berrylands to play local rivals Old Wimbledonians, a team who traditionally the Law have beaten consistently by the smallest of margins however this changed when Old Ws massacred an understrength Law side on the last day of the previous season. Saturday was time for the Law to reassert their authority, and they did so emphatically.

It was a gloriously sunny October afternoon and the Law ran hard from the get go. A penalty was soon awarded to the Law who kicked for touch fancying an early drive for the line. After an initial line out was illegally thwarted by Old W's the Law went for it again, a precision throw from the hooker was caught and set up for a driving maul which allowed the value add machine himself Jamie Richards to score his first try of the season with Robin Eager adding the conversion, soon after Eager would add a penalty to his points tally. The line out would prove to be strong weapon for the Law; the returning Andy Ball was a commanding presence both on the Law's own throws and the opposition's. Old Wimbledonians attacked directly and were strong at retaining their possession which eventually bore fruit for them as they were awarded a penalty which they kicked to get on the board. The Law got back into opposition territory through some strong running and carrying, Alex Spurgeon leading the way with a number of clean breaks. A second Law try came from a brilliant hustling and bustling run from Rick Armstrong who cut a direct line in midfield to break the tackles on the 22 and charge through to the line to score his 4th try of the season. Mackenzie Davis demonstrating his good decision making and distribution giving the the assist to the big man. Eager nudged the conversion.

Old Wimbledonians then launched a promising attack straight after as a back row forward caught their own restart and charged towards the Law line, dogged defence from the Law prevented a try being scored however the Wombles were awarded a penalty which was kicked on the stroke of half time.

The Law had had a similar half time lead in their previous game which they ended up losing. Keen to not make the same mistake the Law came out for the second half with a real added fire to their performance. Five minutes after the break the Law were close to the try line with a good lineout drive from a penalty to touch, after some phases of picking and going the Law struck with Tom Maclean breaking from a ruck to draw a few defenders and then hitting Davis who timed his run well and burst through for his first ever Law Society try in just his 21st appearance. Eager again added the conversion. The Law's efforts became more focused and ruthless as five minutes later they scored the 4th bonus point try, this came from a flowing backs move that saw Tom Jones deliver the final pass to Logan Piercy who would score his first of the match out wide. The Law now had a 23 point lead but were only half way done with the try scoring.

The next try was arguably the best of the match. A midfield line out won by Ben White was spread to Jamie Richards in the back line, after a bit of confusion and the ball being spilled backwards Richards recovered and found space between the defenders he offloaded to James Doran who made a trademark rangey run across and up the pitch, keen not to get isolated Doran offloaded back towards the Law support, the ball found Sam Brewer who made a typically strong run through the chasing Wimbledon defenders, close to the line the final offload went to Maclean for his first try of the match and the season. Eager yet again kicking the conversion.

The Law then found themselves under some pressure minutes later as OWs spread the ball wide and put a grubber through into the in goal area, the Law safely touched it down for a 22 drop out. Eager hit the dropout long and straight with Tom Brewer in mad pursuit forcing the catcher to try an ambitiously long pass which sadly for the Wombles was plucked out of the air by Angus Simpson who sprinted unopposed to score under the posts, Eager this time drop kicking the conversion. This was a killer score for the Law that highlighted their hunger for points that day and there were still more to come. It was the Law's impact players such as Callum Morris who's high tempo work allowed the Law to keep the pressure up. The next try was again a good display of hard running and slick offloading, Josh Emmett making the notable charge towards the line before offloading out of the tackle, the ball found Armstrong who gave the final pass to Maclean to score his second of the day. Eager was well practiced by this stage and dutifully kicked the conversion. The Law had a final score in them with less than ten minutes to go, Alex Tindall cutting back inside to make good headway up the field, the ball went across the field and back and was in Sam Brewer's hands metres from the line where he slipped a back door offload to Piercy out of the tackle for the winger to score his second try. Eager kicking his final conversion; 8 kicks out of 10 was his return for the day.

Despite the result of the game being in no doubt the Wimbledonians were still up for the fight until the end and finished the game strongly with 5 minutes of constant threat on the Law try line. Unfortunately for the visitors they were up against a Law side just as determined in their defence as in attack as the Law saw out a series of strong runs and drives for the line. A turnover kicked to touch would end the game without the Wombles scoring a try.

It was a truly dominant display by the Law Society but the result shouldn't discredit Old Wimbledonians who were worthy competitors through out but just up against a team in fine form on the day. The Law must now take the confidence from the this big win as they travel to top of the table newly promoted Reeds Weybridge who have thus far taken a maximum 20 points from the first 4 league games.