Wimbledon 50 – 17 Southend

An accident and long tailback on the A3 resulted in your reporter arriving at the
Wimbledon ground as the whistle signalled the end of the first half, by which time
Dons had secured their 13 th try bonus point of the season and established a healthy 26-
10 lead. There were tries by centre Jack Reville, fullback Matt Gilbert, prop Phil
Viane and wing Josh Charles, three of them converted by fly-half Bryan Croke. For
Southend there was a penalty and conversion by Bradley Burr and a try for Tim
Ashton.

Two minutes into the second half wing Dan Cheers – who had an excellent all-round
match – touched down a perfectly weighted Croke chip to the corner to increase the
score to 31-10. Thereafter, although more of the game took place in Southend’s half,

Wimbledon were unable to breach their defence until 15 minutes from time, when
heavy hits by the centres won turnover ball and Croke and Reville kicked ahead deep
into the visitor’s 22, from where Cheers began a lovely weaving run to within 2m of
the goal line, when he gave an inside pass to the supporting Aaron Lowe who had
only to fall over the line to score.

Then a sloppy pass in Dons’ back line gave Southend the opportunity to spread the
ball wide and allow lock Leavasa to canter in unopposed. Burr converted well from
the touchline to close the gap to 36-17.

But minutes later Dons’flanker Sean Renwick went over for try no.7 after a perfectly
delayed pass by scrum half Rhys Morgan to Josh Bayford saw the prop sidestep a
defender before neatly offloading to Renwick. Gilbert, now in the no.10 spot,
converted from in front of the posts.

Southend refused to give up and launched a series of attacks, but Dons’ linespeed and
fierce tackling quickly snuffed them out. And with a minute remaining, to rub salt in
the wound, Morgan Wriggled through a maul on his 22, shrugged off several tackles
and took the ball 50m upfield. From the ensuing ruck, Croke chipped to the corner
again, into the arms of Lowe, who ran in try no.8 and Gilbert brought up the 50 points
with a conversion in off the posts.

Next week is the crunch match, away at Tonbridge Juddians, who hold just the one
point lead over Wimbledon, themselves 15 points clear of third-placed Hertford.
Clearly, the result could determine the outcome of the league this season.