A chilly morning at Wimbledon, but the rain held off until everyone was in the clubhouse later. Effingham visited us for the second time this year, bringing their B side this time and getting an almost identical result, a victory by the narrowest of margins. The good relationship building up between our two squads is likely to continue with an A/B friendly next season, hopefully with Wimbledon running out the narrow victors next time.

The game started well for Wimbledon, with us having the better of a very even first few minutes. With the ball going out well to the wings, both James Waghorn and Sam Codling were able to make significant ground before they were halted. Continued pressure put us close to the Effingham line, and a great pass from Elliot Phillips released Matt Shaw to score on the right; 5.-0 up. Effingham now put together some good moves and sustained pressure, a good run being stopped by Sam and Diogo Carvalho putting in a huge tackle count on the day. However from a scrum on our line Effingham were able to drive over for a try, converting it to take the lead 5-7.

We came right back at them with our best spell of the game, taking the ball to their line but unfortunately losing the ball in a ruck. Some silly penalties pushed us back again, meaning Diogo and had to put in some more great tackles. A move between Elliot Phillips and James Waghorn came close to a score on the left wing, but the key to the pressure was our retention of the ball, with both Cameron Wilkinson and Harry Sullivan displaying great determination and counter-rucking. From a ruck close to the Effingham line, the ball was quickly fed to Connor Coleman to score down the blind side. 10 - 7 up at half time.

The second half began even, but Effingham began to gain the upper hand and Diogo was again called on to make even more tackles. With the pressure building up through at least 4 phases, Effingham were soon near our line and went over with a blind side run that was the mirror image of Connors try. We were now 10-12 down, and came back with real determination to regain the lead. Alfie Jervis put his opposite number at SH under real pressure, and with the ball coming out quickly down the line on several occasions it was only some unforced handling errors which prevented us from scoring again. In the forwards, Diogo Carvalho and Connor Coleman were leading from the front, gaining at least 50 yards each between some surging runs. However the pressure failed to tell and the final scoreline was a narrow defeat by 2 points, 10-12.

A lot of positives to take from this - Effingham are doing well in D3, which gives us an idea of the standard our B team could match if we could get another few players and enter them in the league.

Christmas lunch followed, many thanks on behalf of the coaches for the best wishes and bottles of wine.