Depleted Dons Struggle Against League High Fliers
Rugby result: Dorking 56 – 7 Wimbledon
Picture: Wimbledon RFC
The extent of Wimbledon’s injury list, particularly in the pack, was evident from their team sheet for Saturday’s match against second placed Dorking; not one forward among the replacements.
From the kick-off it soon became clear that Don’s pack was again lacking experienced players in several positions and were heavily outweighed, outscrummaged and outjumped. In fact they didn’t win a single lineout in the first half, and no.8 Ted Bunn and scrum-half Owen Davis did well to secure any possession behind a rapidly retreating scrum. But it was slow ball and Dorking’s fast and efficient backs allowed Don’s normally free-running backs little room to move and caused them to make mistakes and hand back possession.
Playing downhill and with the wind the home team ran in three tries in the first 20 minutes, all converted by the captain Matt Noble who celebrated his final home game for his club by converting every one of his side’s tries on the day.
Despite living off scraps Wimbledon showed glimpses of their creative play, one of which, following a break by centre Paul Hendry on half-way, led to no.10 Jake Noble sidestepping one man then outpacing the defence to score in the corner and converting it from touch. Earlier in the move though Dons suffered their first injury of the day, with flanker Grant Paterson having to be replaced. The resulting reshuffle saw wing James Millais move into the pack.
Good defence, including try-saving tackles by Noble, Hendry and Henry Peuble amongst many others, kept Dorking at bay until the final minute of the half when their centre Mosley notched up their fourth try, the conversion making it 28-7 at half-time.
The second half started really badly for Wimbledon, conceding a fifth try three minutes in and, worse still, losing fullback Ollie Kitto, plus Bunn and Millais to injury ten minutes later. They were soon followed off the pitch by the last surviving back rower, Tyler Reichardt, meaning Wimbledon had to see out the final 15 minutes of the match with only 13 men.- all of whom did incredibly well to limit Dorking to just two more tries. They took the score to one the likes of which Wimbledon have not seen for many a season.
It will be interesting to see if they can raise a squad of 18 fit players for their final game of the season in two weeks’ time at home against Tring.
But whatever the result of that game, Wimbledon will finish seventh in the league which, under the circumstances is pretty impressive, and credit must go to Collin Osborne and his coaching team for putting out so many makeshift sides that have still been able to compete well and win over half their games.
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April 11, 2022