Wimbledon 41-14 victors over Oxford Harlequins to go top of the table

For the opening five minutes of this Regional 1 South Central match it looked as though the unbeaten league leaders Oxford Harlequins were going to give Wimbledon a very hard time in this first ever meeting between the two clubs.

As it turned out though, it was quite the opposite, and having absorbed the visitor’s sustained attack it was Dons who scored. Stand off Ed Morgan broke from deep and took play well into the OH half, shipped the ball to scrum-half Alex Kerr, who offloaded to Brad Pinkham and the wing was in at the corner. The wind took Morgan’s kick just wide.

Almost immediately the first of two lovely breaks by wing Ollie Kitto just failed to produce another try, but his second yielded an excellent score by centre Henry Peuble via fellow centre Paul Hendry. The wind again denied the Dons a conversion.

Against the run of play OH then reduced their deficit to 10-7 after a long kick to near the Wimbledon goal line resulted in a converted try. But, after five minutes of classic Wimbledon back play, the pack finished the job with hooker Jake Farnworth touching down for try number three and full-back Ally Duddell added the extras.

It was all Wimbledon now and just before half-time the pack began a drive from a five-metre lineout, the entire backline added their weight and Farnworth was in for his second try.

Starting the second half 22-7 ahead, it took just eight minutes for that to increase to 29-7 after flanker David Aniebonam bullied his way through the defence and set Kitto off on one of his electric jinking runs to score the Dons’ fifth try, converted by Morgan.

A good restart by OH resulted in a five-metre lineout from which quick ball across the pitch led to their wing scoring in the corner and a very good conversion made it 29-14.

Wimbledon soon regained total control and the pack, again with added weight from the backs, drove over for lock Jake Cleet to get his name on the scoresheet. He was soon joined, following a repeat performance from the pack after a five-metre lineout by flanker Luke Cerely, and Morgan’s conversion brought up the final score of 41-14, just as the end of a perfect rainbow fell on Wimbledon’s clubhouse.

There may not have been gold there, but there was a great atmosphere after this excellent all-round Wimbledon performance, which took them to the top of the table. It’s one they’ll need to reproduce this weekend away to fourth-placed Maidenhead.

Wimbledon seconds won 17-36 at Dorking with tries by Harry Jinks, George Brosch, Tom Bracegirdle and a hattrick for Max Lufkin.