Brighton 17 - Wimbledon 39

London League 1 South. 30.3.15

Brighton 17 - 39 Wimbledon

Despite the gale force wind, slightly in the home team’s favour in the first half, this was a hugely entertaining game, with both sides determined to play fast open rugby.
They both succeeded, but Wimbledon did it that bit better than Brighton, despite the last-minute loss of three players, including captain and kicker, Neil Hallett, not to mention the absence of several other key men. But any doubts as to the effectiveness of the replacements were soon dispelled as Wimbledon turned in one of their best all-round team performances of the season. It’s hard to single out any player, but half-backs Rhys Morgan and Bryan Croke, aided by no.8 Gary Crowe, were outstanding.

The first half was pretty even and it was only after the yellow-carding of centre Neil Brown that Brighton’s centre McCoghlan found a gap in Wimbledon’s otherwise excellent defence to open the scoring with a try 30 minutes in. But then a 5m lineout was well won by Ed Lewis (just one of many fine takes) and the pack surged over for Ed’s brother Chris to touch down. Neither kicker could beat the wind to convert, but Croke did manage to slot a penalty on the stroke of half time.

A great sprint by Pete Scott four minutes after the re-start saw him touch down in the corner, but not before his foot had hit the touchline. It didn’t matter though, as a lineout steal by Lewis was quickly shipped crossfield to Scott and on to fellow winger Josh Charles who sped over for a good try, brilliantly converted from the touchline by Croke.

Ten minutes later a fine blind side break by centre Ti Pairama-Lewington and great inter-passing led to captain of the day Shaun Renwick scoring Dons’ third try. Charles got the fourth and bonus point try after a huge clearance kick by Croke, a storming run by prop Ben Davies, and then Croke again delivering the pass to Charles running a great angle. Another good conversion by Croke took Dons into a 27-5 lead.

Brighton bounced back and played seven or eight phases within two metres of Dons’ goal line, but their superb defence won the day. Moments later though, a rare defensive misunderstanding out wide gave Brighton’s lock Luke Edwards a clear run to the line and Finch’s well-struck conversion made it 27-12.

Approaching full time a superb break by Morgan, a kick-ahead by Renwick, gathered by Scott and the winger was over for his second try, again beautifully converted by Croke. Into injury time Edwards powered over for Brighton’s third try, almost immediately cancelled out by a typical Croke chip over Brighton’s defence which he gathered himself and rounded off an excellent day with Wimbledon’s sixth try

With Chobham also earning five points, Wimbledon remain just two clear of them at the top of the league, with just Basingstoke to play in two weeks time then Sidcup, both at home. That last game of the season should be a real nail-biter.