Westcliff 20 - 55 Wimbledon

After last week’s narrow defeat Wimbledon bounced back into winning ways with an emphatic 20-55 victory over Westcliff, to make it 5 bonus point wins out of six matches this season, keeping them second to league leaders Hertford only on points difference.

The team manager James Ogilvy-Bull was fulsome in his praise of Wimbledon’s first half performance, describing the execution of multiple phases of play and cast-iron defence as exceptional. The proof was their eight tries, five conversions and a half-time score of 6-50. In the second half Wimbledon took their foot off the gas a bit and were upset by some important refereeing decisions, but credit to Westcliff who fought back well to outscore Dons by 14 points to 5, demonstrating why they had lost by only six points to the league leaders and by four points to Tonbridge, the only team to beat Wimbledon.

Ogilvy-Bull’s praise extended to every player on the pitch in Saturday’s team (a team missing half a dozen of those who notched up the first four victories) but singled out flanker Kane Alboni on his debut, tighthead Bradley Ugodulunwa and wing Josh Charles as having outstanding games.

Scorers of the nine tries were Rhys Morgan, Roy Godfrey, Sean Renwick (2), Tommy Moore, Kane Alboni, Dave Bennett, Jack Reville and Josh Charles. Morgan, stepping in for the injured Bryan Croke, converted five of them.

After a break in league fixtures next weekend, Wimbledon will take on bottom-of-the-table Amersham & Chiltern at home on 22nd October.