Firstly, the context for this game needs to be set. This was arranged last year as a pure U17 fixture, but in the meantime Dorking have had to fold both of their U17 and U18 teams due to lack of numbers. They are now putting out a joint 17/18s side. When they let us know that a couple of weeks back, we had to decide whether to go ahead with the fixture or not. What we took into consideration was

a) it is turning out to be almost impossible to get short-notice fixtures this year. So it was a choice between this game or training, with the league game to come
b) we could have put out a joint U17/18 side ourselves. The 18s would have been keen on that, being short of games, but we felt that this was the last opportunity to put out our own full team before the Ruts league match.

So - although we lost the game, this was tough opposition and we can again take a lot of positives from the performance.

One day, Wimbledon will escape from the recurring pattern of starting games badly. But not this time - a very slow start saw Dorking put 3 quick tries on us, one which went out to the wing and two driven over by their forwards with some good support play. This could have been worse but for some try-saving tackles from Sam Codling, Lucas Strauss and Archie Watkins. However we did start to come back into the game, and a good 5 minute period of pressure generated our first points when Ellis was driven strongly over the line. Dorking came back almost immediately however for another try from their forwards, and when they then quickly fed the ball down the line to their right wing they scored their 5th try and went into half-time 5 - 25 up.

Wimbledon began the second half much better in almost all areas. The scrum, which had been pushed back for most of the 1st half, started to hold its own much better. However we had a problem all game with protecting our scrum half, and both Alex Paul and Alfie Jervis had a rough time of it. Our lineout, so much better against Guildford, was again fragile. But there were many positives from this period, and Wimbledon probably dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half. Highlights were some great ball-carrying by George and Lucas, solid tackling from relative newcomers Rory and Chris, and of course the breakaway try by Charlie, converted by Archie to bring us back into contention at 12-25. Jack Gleeson was a real live wire in the loose.

Dorking however finished the stronger - this is becoming a bit of a pattern, and perhaps some of the squad need to be doing more fitness work during the week. Their huge #3 was able to drive through for another try, then a move from one wing to the other stretched out our defence and Dorking scored again on the wing. We were still putting together some good play, with Angus tackling well and both Alfie and Elliot gaining ground with strong runs. However we ended up 12 - 37 down at the end.

We go into the first league game having played tougher buildup games then we might have originally hoped, but we remain a team of good players and have definitely played tougher opposition than we are likely to face in the league.