Brentwood 17 - Wimbledon 29

Brentwood 17 - Wimbledon 29

Wimbledon travelled to Brentwood for the first time following the home team’s promotion at the end of last season. They came away with a satisfying bonus point victory over a determined team who are still finding their place in the league.

Wimbledon opened the scoring very rapidly after just one minute when a run by centre Gav Tusini passed through the hands of centre Toby White before coming back to wing Phil Chesters who scored wide out, fullback Matt Gilbert made the conversion. The second try came after seven minutes when following a line-out on the halfway line the ball was taken left and Gav Tusini once again took the ball through several tackles to backrow Chris York who after a driving maul and with no.8 Kane Alboni assisting, needed no encouragement to crash over. This try could not be converted but it seemed to fire the home team into life, they forced a penalty for Wimbledon straying offside and centre Brad Burr made no mistake from only just inside the Wimbledon half.

The next penalty after 18 minutes was awarded to Wimbledon after Brentwood were judged to have been crossing in midfield. The kick was taken from 35m out to the corner and from the lineout Captain Josh Bayford forced his way over for the score, again the conversion was missed. From the kickoff Wimbledon took the ball forward and wing Jack Revelle was unlucky to have his kick charged down when attempting to chip over his opponent, but on 36 minutes he was more fortunate when he rounded the defence to score Wimbledon’s bonus point try and finish the half 22 – 3 ahead.

At half time York was replaced by the energetic Mark Scott who soon made his presence felt with powerful ball carrying, yet and not for the first time this season, the team collectively seemed to go to sleep and Brentwood sensing this started to exert pressure for themselves. After three minutes a move through their threequarters and out to the left wing led to a try for wing Pollinger, again Burr was successful with the conversion and at 22 - 10 and with the slope of the pitch in their favour Brentwood gained some parity. Wimbledon replaced Matt Gilbert with Tom Milner on his debut, it was not long before the margin was closed to 22 – 17 after a further try and conversion. No doubt some of the home crowd sensed an upset might happen but with York restored to the field after injury treatment Wimbledon took possession in the final minutes and drove to the corner. Several drives and having the ball held up near the line, eventually with time running out a Brentwood scrum was disrupted and after several attempts the ball came to loose-head prop Jordan Saunders and no tackler could stop his drive to the line. The resulting conversion was taken by outside half Will Taylor and a thankful Wimbledon were happy with the final result of 29 - 17.

Next Saturday Wimbledon will be at home to Sidcup with a 2.30pm kick-off.