This was the last league game of the season, and to lose to the eventual league winners is of course no disgrace. We were always going to be up against it having lost a lot of players to (mainly) the 7s tournament this weekend. However the lads who played on Sunday played hard, kept their heads up and represented their club with pride - we could not have asked for any more.

Thanks to three players who joined the league squad for the first time: Huw Roberts, Jack Durant and Ollie Hicks - a baptism of fire for sure! Ellis Morgan made his first start at hooker and played solidly for the whole game, and Alfie Jervis put in one of the performances he used to as a regular a couple of seasons back. Particularly unlucky was Dom Bellenger, who had to go off injured soon after coming on (he is not seriously hurt, fortunately).

Given the scoreline, it is no surprise that there was a lot of defending to do. Captain for the day Matt Rogers lead from the front with some thumping tackles, joined in particular by Kit Lewis, Huw Roberts, Matt Shaw and Charlie McKibben in the early stages. Full back Archie Watkins was always going to have a busy day, and he had a stormer, saving at least 2 certain tries with last-ditch flying tackles in the corners and one particularly memorable tap tackle. Wings Sam Codling and Lucas Strauss were there to support him after that last one, bringing down the support runner.

It was not all one-way traffic however, between the 6 Cobham tries in the first half we mounted some good attacks. Cameron Wilkinson put on his best ever display of kicking, relieving pressure and on two occasions releasing Sam and Kit to chase kicks that could easily have resulted in a try (in fact we are convinced that Sam grounded the last one). The Wimbledon scrum once again demonstrated the excellent strength in depth we have in our forwards, driving Cobham off their own ball multiple times - Damian Cherry-Fox and George Batchelor dominating their opposite numbers, and Ollie Hicks continuing the good work in the second half. Ellis Morgan played the whole game at hooker, never putting a foot wrong apart from nearly being sent off for dissent! :). Jack Durant fitted in well with regular Alex Browning in the second row. Our best attack came from a scrum as we shipped the ball quickly to the left, Archie joining the line brilliantly and was unlucky to be pushed out near their line.

A period of sustained pressure pushed us up to the Cobham line. They were forced into conceding 3 penalties in quick succession for rucking offences, and lost one of their players to a yellow card as a result. We were unlucky not to score from the first, as a great move to the left involving Huw Roberts and Ellis Morgan got the ball out to James Waghorn on the wing, who didn't quite make it to the line. A great steal by Matt Rogers set up another chance for us, and Cameron was unlucky not to break through from a quick penalty.

Though we went in at half-time 34-0 down, there was to be no rout in the second half as Wimbledon came out with their heads up and playing for pride (and a score!). Archie and Sam combined well in a chase that was unlucky not to get us some points on the board, and Sam was soon after that pushed out on the wing near their line. Oli Moulton picked out a superb running line to join an attack and was unlucky to be pushed out on the left - and in defence put in a try-saving tackle on our right. Alex Browning was his usual combative self and was instrumental in holding the ball up on our line. Alfie Jervis came on to put in some good runs and in particular an intelligent attacking kick, from which we were again pushed out. Dom Bellenger made his unlucky cameo appearance, having to withdraw after his hand was trodden on. With a scrum near their line, we again pushed Cobham off the ball and Charlie McKibben was able to pick up and run - unfortunately not quite making it to their line. With Wimbledon not quite managing to get a score, Cobham put in another couple of tries to end the game on the 40-point margin rule.

This was a hard game, played on hard ground and we were glad to see that we didn't pick up any serious injuries. The gutsy performance by all the lads made us proud, and vindicated we think the 'one squad' ethos we have in our age group - we have strength in depth and we could easily have put a couple of tries past Cobham today.

This result leaves us a very respectable 4th in the league, and continues our steady progression over the 3 years of Youth rugby we have played. We know more or less the composition of the division for next season, and are quietly confident that we can build further on this success. We had a couple of defeats this season which we thought we could have easily gone the other way. Nearly 30 boys have played a part in that league season.