Match report from todays league fixture. A hard-fought game, with a scoreline that does not reflect how close it was in the end. Despite the loss, we are completely safe in the division and with other results from today are still in with a shot at a promotion slot. The game was contested in the best of rugby spirit, and I am already in discssions to establish it next season as an A/B friendly.

Best of luck to James McGrath and Jack Gleeson who left the field with injuries today, and thanks to Cameron for continuing the match report notes while I was off dealing with those. For some reason I found his writing easier to read than my own, but it must be a first to be mentioned 3 times while you are off the pitch :)

The teams started out evenly matched, but early on we started to give away penalties and this was to be the story of the first half - chiefly around the tackle area. In defence, notable contributions were made by Rob Davies and Diogo Carvalho, and twice James McGrath relieved the pressure with good box kicks. In attack, Diogo and Oli Moulton were pushed out while making strong attacking runs, and Archie Watkins twice followed up his own kicks well. Off the pitch, Carole McGrath had to clear up some crappy ball retrieval by the players and make a long run to bring the ball back. Kevin will be working with her on kicking for next time!

The penalty count eventually told against us when we gave away yet another within kicking range, and Chobham converted it to put us 0-3 down. We came back strongly and won a scrum deep in their half, only to lose the ball again - conceding another penalty in defending and going 0-6 down. Notable efforts before half time were a great bit of counter-rucking by Matt Rogers which won the ball for Lucas Strauss to make a charge which was pushed out; a great kick through by Max Tomlinson which we nearly converted into a try; and a typical ground-gaining run from James. However we went in at half time still 6-0 down.

Chobham were satisfied with that scoreline, having the slope and the wind to their advantage in the second half. However the Wimbledon start rocked them back immediately. The forwards made a series of drives towards their line, Diogo and Eslam being prominent. The backs made a good move out to the right, Rob being instrumental but the swirling wind causing a drop just as it reached the wing. A similar move on the left saw Lucas Strauss make a good run only to be pushed out, and Matt Shaw making good ground only to be halted by a crunching (but perfectly legal) dump tackle. The Wimbledon try was coming however, and it was eventually crashed through by Eslam Djennad for his third try in as many games. The conversion was far from easy in the conditions, but slotted so superbly by Archie Watkins that he drew generous applause from both sets of supporters. We were now leading 7-6.

Wimbledon continued to press, and Chobham were forced to relieve the pressure several times with long kicks, taking advantage of the wind. Rob Davies was active in running back several of these to gain good ground, and we were particularly unlucky when a great move by Nic Shuttleworth ended with a knock on close to their line. An injury to hooker Jack Gleeson - having a great game up to that point - enforced changes in the scrum, but George Batchelor came on to good effect and our scrum continued to more than hold its own. Cameron Wilkinson came on at fly-half and was instrumental in more good back line moves, but at this point Chobham got the ball out to their very fast wings and some missed tackles allowed them to score in our right corner. The conversion was made to take us to 13-7 down.

A series of moves could easily have got us back into the lead. Lucas was unlucky to again be pushed out; a great move between Charlie McKibben and James from a scrum near their line was unfortunately halted; and Matt Shaw displayed some great counter-rucking to wind us another chance. Unrelenting pressure drove us over their line, but the ball was held up and a 5m scrum resulted. Charlie was unlucky to be pushed out just short of the flag, and when we got a penalty 5m out the attacking move was snuffed out by the (excellent all day) defensive work from the Chobham centres. After several minutes of Wimbledon pressure, Chobham were able to break out and would have scored but for a try-saving tackle from Rob Davies. But unfortunately for us the last score of the game came from the home side, driving over in the corner for an unconverted try and an 18-7 lead that was unassailable in the time left to us. The late injury to captain and scrum half James McGrath was an unwelcome end to the match.

A lot of positives to take from this one, the major negative being the number of penalties given away for tackle and rucking offences.

Martin