Wimbledon 25 - London Irish Wild Geese 17

Wimbledon opened the new season with London Irish Wild Geese coming to Barham Road.
The home team had a number of new backs selected with a largely familiar look to the forwards and with Josh Bayford restored to the captaincy after his injury last season. Wimbledon opted to play into the wind and at the first scrum showed the upper hand that was to last throughout the match. New recruit, Rob Ellis, on the left wing looked lively and elusive to tacklers, but the first score was a well taken drop goal by the Irish outside half Mark Abraham on twenty minutes. Wimbledon replied four minutes later with a strong driving maul that lasted for twenty metres resulting in a penalty that was kicked to the corner by outside half Steve Boatman. The lineout was won and following a good drive hooker Josh Forrester scored near to the posts. Harry Tabb at scrum half was unable to convert into the wind.
Ten minutes later the second try came after a lineout when Tabb to no.8 Chris York and finally to wing Ollie Kitto took play to the right-hand corner. Wimbledon pressed again with centre Paul Hendry and finally lock Rob Louw, running on to a chip ahead, scored near to the posts. Again, the conversion was missed, and the half ended with the score of 10 – 3 reflecting Wimbledon’s advantage.
Shortly after half time lock Jack Cooke replaced Alex Campbell who had sustained a calf injury and causing the first re-shuffle of the pack.
Early in the 2nd half a successful driving maul led to one of Wimbledon’s most enterprising passages of play with good handling across the line leading to a try on the far left by fullback Freddie Hooper which was converted by Tabb and at 17 – 3. Wimbledon looked to be in control, and the lead was extended eleven minutes later by an unconverted try by wing Rob Ellis to secure the bonus point.
The injury curse struck again with a head injury assessment to lock Rob Louw sending on Bradley Ugodulunwa at prop and Bertie Haskins going to flanker, this was not the end as flanker Ted Lee had to be replaced after a head injury by Tabb, the scrum half now playing on the flank. With more than half the Wimbledon pack playing out of position momentum was lost and at this stage London Irish Wild Geese came well into the match with their own replacements, especially in the front row.
The next score was by the London Irish centre Aloisio Vereimi seeing a gap, which he powered through to score on 77 minutes, converted by Abrahams and this was followed by fullback Oliver Turner scoring to take the score to 22 – 17, within a losing bonus point. There were a few nervous moments on the touchline but a final penalty by Boatman opened the score to 25 – 17 and this was the final result.
On the adjacent pitch Wimbledon 2nd XV scored a notable victory over Bishops Stortford 2nd XV 29 – 15 and the Wimbledon 3rd XV opened their season with a 12 – 8 victory over Old Blues 2nd XV to complete a good start to the season.
Next week Wimbledon will be away to CS Stags 1863 with a 3.00pm kick-off.