Rugby union: Wimbledon lose 17-30 at Havant

Wimbledon’s visited Havant for the first time in seven season and since their last visit the home team now play on a RFU-funded artificial 4G pitch with accompanying surrounding footpaths, barriers and floodlighting.

The surface took some time for the Dons players to become accustomed to and a strong wind blew down the pitch giving each side an advantage for half the match.

Havant had a heavy pack of forwards and exerted domination from the kick-off but showed some disorganisation when receiving kick-offs throughout the whole match.

They took advantage of the wind in the first half but lost their loosehead prop Bellman after just seven minutes, the playing surface also claimed another casualty when Wimbledon number eight Mark Scott went off with an ankle injury after 12 minutes to be replaced by Dave Wayman.

Despite this Wimbledon were able to open the scoring with a try by elusive winger Ollie Kitto with scrum half Owen Davies making the conversion.

The resulting restart saw Wimbledon concede a five-metre scrum and the Havant pack took advantage as centre Rueben Knight was able to score on 16 minutes with the conversion coming from fellow centre Joel Knight, the first of his four successful kicks.

They followed it up with the second on 32 minutes with a driving maul that gave their replacement prop a score. The conversion was missed. Shortly after this a yellow card was awarded against Wimbledon and the half was played out with just 14 players and the home pack sensed another score and a succession of pick-and go moves close to the line gave a score under the posts for second row Janes. Another conversion made the score 19–7.

Wimbledon centre Finn Taylor was able to get over in the corner but Davies was unable to make the conversion into the wind, Wimbledon were still in the match at 19–12 and with the wind favouring them in the second half. But pressure from the home pack gave two penalty kicks and Knight scored with both as they led 25-12 at half time.

The second half had much less scoring and only one try from each side.

Left wing Revol earned Havant’s bonus point.

Wimbledon were unlucky when right winger Brad Pinkham put a foot in touch after a long run from his own half to near the Havant try line. But with the territory gained from the lineout, lock Ted Bunn was able to be in support and score. Again Davies was unable to convert and shortly after this a yellow card to a Havant front row player led to uncontested scrums at the end for a few minutes without effect on the score.

Good throwing by Tyler Reichardt and Dave Waymen gave Wimbledon good lineout possession but the better side won.

Wimbledon travel to Maidenhead on Saturday in a fixture postponed from December.