There were two good games we thought, both the Wimbledon and Effingham coaches were pleased with the quality of rugby and the test provided to our respective squads. Many thanks to Andrew Lewis for stepping in at very short notice to ref the B game today.

Next week is Farnham at HOME, normal start time and hopefully rather more of the squad staying for the after-match food in the clubhouse.

Wimbledon A 36 - 17 Effingham and Leatherhead A

Effingham are currently in Division 1, and although they are in danger of relegation this year this still represented a stern test for us. In the early exchanges, we were pushed backwards in the scrum by their better timing of the hit. With Effingham in our half, some strong defensive work was called for - notable tackles being made by Matt Shaw and Dominic Suckling. A good kick through by Effingham would have resulted in a try but for quick thinking by James McGrath, and a good team effort by the pack pushed an Effingham maul out near our line. Wimbledon had some counter-attacking opportunities, with James Waghorn and Diogo Carvalho being pushed out on the wings. However Effingham were on the scoresheet first, a run bisecting our somewhat ragged defensive line to score under the posts and put us 0 - 7 down. This was however to be the only time in the match we were behind. The next 20 minutes saw a memorable, match-winning hat trick of tries for Nic Shuttleworth. The first was a superb breakaway; the second a great team move with Max Tomlinson instrumental and the third was set up by a great running line from Charlie McKibben. Between these tries another good move from our scrum saw Lucas Strauss pushed out on the left. Effingham attacks were halted by a great charge-down by Matt Rogers and a try-saving tackle in front of our posts by Dom Suckling. All three were converted by Archie Watkins, one being a particularly memorable kick from the touchline. However right before half time Effingham again ran through us to score and leave us 21 - 12 up.

The second half began with steady pressure from Effingham. Some intelligent kicking saw them camped on our line with three scrums in rapid succession; but our scrum was now holding much better and we managed to clear our lines each time, of particular note being the defensive kicking by Max Tomlinson. We started to put together some counter-attacks, and Aidan O'Brien was unlucky with a chase down. However we broke through when James McGrath first made 30 yards with a run then worked a move with Charlie from a scrum to score. Soon afterwards Lucas was again pushed out on the left after a good run, but Effingham were coming back strongly and were twice held up on our line to their right. When the shipped the ball down the line to their left, they went over to score. With none of the second half tries being converted by either side, we were now 26 - 17 up. Further Wimbledon attacks followed, both Lucas and Diogo being unlucky, but it was Lucas who scored next after a great move. Dom Suckling gained 20 yards, then shipped the ball through Cameron, Max and Charlie to Lucas on the left. Effingham heads had dropped a little but defensive work remained to be done; Dom Suckling made two more crunching tackles, and Charlie made a try-saving tackle with Effingham overlapping on their right. The match ended with possibly the best try of the day as Aidan O'Brien made good ground and then offloaded perfectly for Diogo Carvalho to score. Final result 36-17 to Wimbledon.

Wimbledon B 17 - 36 Effingham and Leatherhead B

Apologies for the B game report being relatively truncated, but I was doubling up as First Aider and we had a LOT of injuries and enforced substitutions. Hopefully all those boys who took knocks today are OK.

The first half was very one-sided, with Wimbledon looking as if they were half asleep for most of it. Effingham ran in 4 unanswered tries, and we had very few offensive moves of any note. However some good defensive work was done, with Jon Gallagher particularly prominent for the whole game, stealing the ball on more than one occasion. Cameron Wilkinson did good all-round work with one particularly good clearout. Our best offensive move was by Alfie Jervis, evading several opposing defenders with a long run that was eventually halted by a high tackle. Overall however, the half-time score of 0 -24 could have been even worse.

By the second half, the balance of the side had been seriously disrupted by several injuries - a few players ended up playing out of position, and we had to ask some who had already played one match to come on again. Despite this, we put in a much improved performance. Effingham made the first score despite a great tackle by returner Kit Lewis, but now Wimbledon started to play better and we now answered with three tries of our own in a row. For the first, we quickly switched the ball from the right to the left, a long miss pass from Matt Rogers reaching Cameron, who was able to release Lucas to score in the corner. The difficult conversion was slotted by Cameron to bring us to 7 - 31. For the second, the ball was switched out to the left for Oli Moulton to score well in the corner. The third was from a scrum 20 yards out from the Effingham line, when Matt Rogers picked up and drove through strongly to score in 'Ashton' style to the displeasure of the coaches.

With the score at 17-31 and 10 minutes remaining, Wimbledon were still in with a shout, Ellis Morgan and Elliot Phillips making good ground and James Waghorn unlucky to be pushed out on the right again. Effingham remained strong however, and good defensive work was put in by Jodi Smith and Jon Gallagher. Unfortunately they pushed over late in the game to take the score to 17 - 36, and exact reverse of the A team result. Overall, it was a shame that it took until the second half for Wimbledon to start playing as we know they can - without the unanswered tries in the first half this would have been a much closer game.