Player Comes Out of Retirement To Help Injury Hit Dons


Rugby result: Sevenoaks 36 – 5 Wimbledon


Picture: Wimbledon RFC

Wimbledon’s injury problems really are getting out of hand. For Saturday’s match, away at second-placed Sevenoaks, they had to drag former 1st team prop Pete Wallace out of retirement – and despite not having played for four years he made a real contribution throughout the game. And the injury list grew still longer during the match: first Tony Machado had to leave the field after 20 minutes to be joined five minutes later by fellow lock Tyler Flashman! The subsequent pack reshuffle resulted in wing Jamie Millais and replacement scrum-half Alex Kerr making up the numbers. But the injuries didn’t stop there; soon after half time flanker Ed Allen joined the second rows on the touchline, as did no.8 Luke Cerely ten minutes before time. Slightly iffy yellow cards for captain Ted Bunn in the first half and Jamie Millais in the second didn’t exactly help Dons’ situation either.

The makeshift Wimbledon team started had well with a set move from a scrum producing a good score for Millais to put Wimbledon ahead after five minutes. After that, as the injuries mounted, Sevenoaks began to dominate possession and only a superhuman defensive effort by every remaining fit player kept the half-time score to 12-5.

With every Wimbledon player putting everything he had into the game Dons continued to put up a fantastic fight throughout the second half and it is remarkable that they managed to limit Sevenoaks to just 36 points, 14 of them coming in the last ten minutes when Dons were down to 13 men.

There’s no game next week and who knows who will be available to take the field for Wimbledon the following week when they are at home to third-placed North Walsham? But whoever they are they certainly won’t let the club down.


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March 14, 2022