Wimbledon 36 - Guildford 17

On a day when a strong wind was blowing diagonally across the pitch, Wimbledon were able to use the conditions better than Guildford when it was their turn to have the advantage. A first half where Guildford showed that they could match Wimbledon’s organisation lead to a half time score of 12 – 12. Wimbledon opened the scoring after six minutes when a driving maul that lasted for over 30 metres led to hooker Ben Brooks scoring near to the posts, Bryan Croke’s conversion attempt was wide of the posts. Guildford were not outdone and after nine minutes they launched their own successful attempt at a driving maul to the Wimbledon line and scored by their hooker Harry Phillips. As before the conversion attempt by centre Dan Paton was missed. Wimbledon used a well tried method after 16 minutes of driving straight in the forwards then releasing the backs and left wing Josh Charles scored in the left hand corner. Bryan Croke’s conversion into the wind was a fine kick to extend the lead.

Guildford were making handling errors when in attacking positions to give Wimbledon opportunities to clear from their 22 and the home team were using breaks from their forwards to take the ball away from defence, but they were also making handling errors. A good Guildford attack sent play right to left and back again but a knock-on stopped them. With Wimbledon defending the Guildford scrum half Brad Smith wove his way through the defenders to score under the posts but with the half coming to an end the conversion by Paton left the scores level and Wimbledon knew that with the wind favouring them their opportunities would come in the second half.
Wimbledon started with big bursts from Shawn Renwick and Brian Croke but a loss of concentration led to a yellow card for a Wimbledon player. During this time Wimbledon had a let-off with the penalty awarded being missed by Paton, a misplaced defensive clearance was taken in the air by prop Josh Bayford passing to centre Aaron Lowe who put Croke through to score the third try. With a simple conversion, Wimbledon led 19 – 12. Nine minutes later Lowe scored the bonus point try following a big charge by Ben Brooks to extend to 26 – 12. A penalty for a high tackle gave Croke a kick to the corner and more defence for Guildford. Wimbledon’s runners were taking every opening and no.8 Jimmy Hunt, Croke and wing Dan Cheers all made progress. A scrambled defensive kick from Guildford led to a Wimbledon line-out 5 metres out. Brooks and flanker Dylan Thomas exchanged looks and the ball moved Brooks to Thomas and back again over the five metres to give Brooks a score in the left corner, no conversion was possible. Guildford managed a third score of their own through Dan Paton but it was too late for them to earn a bonus point. A final try on 39 minutes of the second half by Croke gave the final score of 36 – 17.

Wimbledon 2nd XV travelled to Ealing Trailfinders and won convincingly 43 – 0.

Next Saturday Wimbledon 1st XV and 2nd XVs will both travel to Colchester with a 3pm kick-off.