What a difference a week makes! After Wimbledon’s lacklustre showing at
Chichester they really turned it on this week against Guernsey, altogether a much
tougher opposition.

It took Dons just five minutes to open the scoring, wing Josh Charles diving into the
corner after a series of powerful forward drives, quick ball and slick handling by the
backs. Their second try came in similar fashion three minutes later, this time as centre
Aaron Lowe eased through a gap out wide. Fly half Bryan Croke added the extras.

Initially rattled, Guernsey regained their composure and launched a series of attacks
after a huge drive had taken them into Dons’ half for the first time, but ferocious
tackling – from Jack Reville in particular – stopped them in their tracks. Normal
service soon resumed and more classy, fifteen man rugby from Wimbledon brought
try number three as Charles bulldozed through three defenders to score his second.

On the half-hour Guernsey fought back hard and piled pressure on Dons’ goal line,
eventually creating space for their centre, Martin, to burst through and score. Fellow
centre Hellier added the conversion to take the score to 17-7.

Almost straight from the re-start, scrum half Rhys Morgan – one of many on the day
to put in a star performance – opted for the blind side and after a well-timed pass by
Lowe, wing Tommy Moore sped in for try number four.

Five minutes later a powerful surge by Guernsey’s pack from a 5m lineout kept their
team in touch with a pushover try and a Hellier conversion. But Croke soon stretched
Dons’ lead to 25-14 with a converted penalty. Then, in the final ten minutes,
Wimbledon piled on the points with two more converted tries. The first was by lock
Gary Crowe – just reward for closely following an excellent break by Morgan. The
icing on the cake though came from a quick throw-in by replacement flanker James
Hunt after no.8 Roy Godfrey had caterpulted Guernsey’s speedy wing into touch, then
slick hands again acrossfield to Charles, who left three defenders in his wake as he
crossed the line for his hat-trick. Croke’s conversion from near touch rounded off an
inspired team performance, the only dampener being injuries to fullback Dave
Bennett and prop Phil Viane.

Next week Wimbledon travel to Shelford, currently just three league places below
them.

On the adjoining pitch Wimbledon 2 nd XV had an excellent 28-21 league win against
Canterbury 2nd XV.