Late November and T-shirt weather at Farnham, with a blustery wind and the slope of the pitch the only blemishes on perfect conditions for running rugby. A mention is surely due for injured fly-half Max Tomlinson, who has been a constant touchline presence and will hopefully be back with us next January. The pre-match team talk focused on the importance of starting well and with intensity - on todays evidence Wimbledon may finally be getting over their slow start bugbear.

From the Farnham kickoff the ball was caught securely and rapidly fed down the line from Cameron Wilkinson to Nick Shuttleworth, involved in most of the scores today without getting one himself. A pop inside to returning centre Rob Davies fooled the defenders, and there was only one thing on Robs mind as he charged down the right wing before cutting in to score under the posts. From the kickoff, the ball was carried back into the Farnham half and a from a scrum just inside James McGrath picked up at the back and went through half the Farnham defence to score. With Farnham reeling, it was not long after this that flankers Angus Bonner and Dom Suckling secured the ball well at a ruck. The ball was flicked out quickly to Sam Codling on the wing, who ran in yet another try under the posts. With Archie Watkins slotting the conversions easily, the Wimbledon backs had taken us to 21-0 up with barely 10 minutes gone.

This was a good day for the backs, but we have some very mobile forwards and the next score started with great run by Aidan O’Brien. The ball went through several hands as the run was continued into the Farnham half, eventually being cleverly popped by Rob to hooker Jack Gleeson, scoring again under the posts. 28 - 0 up and at this point Farnham put together their best rugby of the game, pushing us back to a Farnham lineout 10 yards from our line. When Aidan stole the ball, the ball was quickly fed out by Sam to Dom on the left wing, who drove almost to the Farnham line before returning the ball to Sam to score. It was not long after the restart that the ball came out to the right, and a storming run by Angus Bonner resulted in yet another score; this time Archie missed for the first time of the day; 5 out of 6 is not too bad!

With the score at 40-0, the game was officially over for the purpose of league points with only 20 minutes gone. Farnham agreed to continue to half-time, and we brought on all of our subs so that everyone got some of the limited game time. If the Farnham pack were expecting a respite their hearts must have sunk at the sight of the “front rows’ front row” of Cyril, Ellis and Connor coming on. Their was a respite in the scoring however, as the change of personnel temporarily threw out our rhythm. This was not to last, and the Wimbledon forwards set about evening up the try count between them and the backs. From a lineout the ball was quickly fed out to Rob Davies, who seemed to be involved in everything on his return. A clever pass inside to Angus Bonner let him drive over for his second. 47 - 0 after Archie of course slotted the conversion.

There was little sublety but considerable skill and strength involved in the next three tries. Diogo Carvalho drove with huge determination through several tackles for a great individual try. This was followed by a great display of supporting running and offloading as Cyril Addo and Dom Suckling drove remorselessly forward through 3 rapid phases of play, Dom eventually going over. Dom was then shortly afterwards charging down the right, with the coaches’ injunction to get the ball to the wings clearly ringing in his ears. Unfortunately as he passed the ball to Lucas for a certain try, Lucas had cut inside him. One to work on in training! The conclusion to the half - and the game - came directly afterwards as Cyril Addo picked up and with great strength rode several tackles to score under the posts.

The game was then stopped by the ref at 64-0 with no opportunity to take the conversion as a Farnham player had sustained a neck injury in the attempt to stop Cyrils run. I am afraid that he left in an ambulance, which was a sad way to end the day;I have asked Farnham to keep us informed.

Just 35 minutes of play resulted in 10 tries, evenly split between forwards and backs. Farnham have had some unenviable problems with losing players to school rugby, and this undoubtedly played a part in this fixture becoming far less competitive than in previous seasons. However this should not detract from just how good some of our rugby was today; sustained pressure from the very start. We dominated in every aspect of the game; winning most of the lineouts and scrums, rucking very well and breaking the Farnham line almost at will with our strong supporting runs. Well done to everyone and bring on the second half of the season!