Wimbledon 17 – 41 L. Irish Wild Geese

As anticipated, Wimbledon’s injury-stricken pack was given a torrid time by the far
heftier London Irish forwards who totally dominated the set scrum and even managed
to disrupt Dons’ normally superior lineout. The result was that Wimbledon had to
make do with scraps of possession – and with slow ball at that. But they started
brilliantly with new centre Aaron Lowe breaking two tackles and sprinting in from
half way to score in the corner. Stand-off Scott Meakin landed an excellent
conversion from the touchline.

But five minutes later the league leaders demonstrated their driving power and
bulldozed over from 5m for a try. Soon after, a succession of driving mauls created a
try for the Irish wing well converted by their fullback. A third try followed quickly
when the Irish no.8 broke from the back of yet another driving maul and plunged over
to take the score to 7-17.

This was swiftly followed by the best try of the match: from loose play Dons’
fullback Tommy Moore made a lovely break from inside his own half, shrugged off a
tackle, dummied two defenders, drew a third and passed to Lowe on his shoulder who
sped over for the try. Meakin’s conversion took Dons to within three points. But it
soon became eight, when the Irish wing scythed through to claim a 4th try for the Irish.

In the dying moments of the half Dons came so close to scoring and, in the view of an
official on the touchline (and of Wimbledon coach Nick Easter, who was less than
happy with several decisions) should have been awarded a penalty try and seen an
Irish lock sent off. As it was they had to settle for a Meakin penalty and a half time
score of 17-22.

But a curious penalty try to the visitors early in the second half gave Wimbledon a 14
point deficit and a mountain to climb. They fought tenaciously and spent several
periods in the Irish 22 but just could not break the visitors’ defence. Eventually
though, the wealth of Irish good ball took its toll and Dons conceded two further tries
which took the final score to 17-41.
Wimbledon’s commitment an effort could not be faulted but they will all look
forward to the return of some bulky forwards in the coming weeks, hopefully some in
time for their visit to Chichester in two weeks time.