Wimbledon 51 Chobham 14

Wimbledon 51- 14 Chobham

With Wimbledon in second place in the league and Chobham just one below, this always promised to be a tight game – and so it was for the first quarter, which ended with Chobham 7-0 ahead. Throughout that period Wimbledon hardly touched the ball and had to face wave after wave of Chobham attacks. But, with just the one lapse when wing Josh Devitt cut through to score a good solo try, converted by no.10 James Dunn, Dons’ sterling defence repelled everything Chobham could throw at them.

Having weathered the early storm Wimbledon won a Chobham scrum to get the ball at last and immediately skipper Neil Hallett opened their scoring with a penalty. Moments later scrum half Charlie Morgan broke round the fringe, shipped quick ball to flanker Chris Lewis and fellow flanker Steve may was on hand to touch down. No fewer than three more tries were scored by Wimbledon before half time, two of them and a second penalty converted by Hallett. The first was from wing Max Adkins, who sprinted in after gathering the ball at full speed from a perfectly judged kick by no.10 Bryan Croke. Josh Charles on the other wing neatly finished off some excellent three-quarter play for the second and the third came from prop Pete Wallace after snaffling loose ball round a ruck that had formed after a lovely run by that man Croke.

The scoreline jumped to 37-7 five minutes into the second half when James McCann, who’d been on the field for all of a minute after replacing an injured Tommy Moore, rounded off another fine play from the backs and Hallett added the extras. Fifteen minutes in no.8 Gary Crowe joined Lewis and his opposite number on the naughty step and the visitors swiftly used their extra man to produce a text book try for wing Harry Guy, well converted by Dunn.

But that was the end of Chobham’s contribution. With all eight Dons forwards putting in 100% - prop James Snape in particular always involved – and lock Campbell Tait dominant in the lineout, as had Crowe been earlier, the backs had all the ball they needed to show off their individual skills and teamwork to produce two more good tries, both converted by Hallett. Morgan got the first, with a lovely dart through from the remnants of a ruck five metres out, then Hallett himself added the finishing touches to yet another flowing move and score out wide before adding the conversion.

In contrast to last week’s rather lacklustre effort at Havant, this was a really excellent team performance from Wimbledon – one they will want to emulate next week away to Twickenham.

Thanks to Nat Madden for the great photos.