Well, it might not seem that many positives could be taken from that result - but on the contrary we actually managed to match Guildford in most areas of the game, and the score did not reflect that. The low points from a Wimbledon point of view would have to be the tackling - or lack of it sometimes - that allowed Guildford to run so many tries through us, plus an unfortunate breach of discipline towards the end. Can I stress again that respect for referees is something that the club, the referees society and the RFU themselves are putting particular emphasis on this season, and breaches of that will cost us dearly.

Moving on to the positives, headed up by an absolute stormer of a performance from Charlie McKibben which drew comment and admiration from the opposition and indeed the referee. This was capped by the the only try we scored, but must have included a couple of hundred yards gained. Our counter-rucking was particularly strong throughout, pushing Guildford off 'their' ball at least half a dozen times that I counted. The scrum held up well and indeed dominated for most of the game, and our lineouts were by far the best we have seen all season so far. There was some good kicking on display from both sides.

To put the result in context, Guildford have not only been promoted to D1 this season but have thumped both Sutton&Epsom and Rosslyn Park so far; no mean feats. Apparently they were doing regular fitness sessions over the summer, which certainly seemed to have paid dividends for them; not least when we flagged towards the end of the second half and shipped a couple of tries after being even for most of it.
Best wishes to James Hole for a rapid recovery from the knock he took, he joins the lengthening injury list.

Next week is training at home; as I will be away please call Mark rather than myself if you need to over the weekend. Please take this seriously; it is increasingly frustrating for the coaches not to ever (it seems) have a consistent set of players at training so that we can work on moves and calls.

See you in a couple of weeks
Regards
Martin