Bognor 13 v Wimbledon RFC 1XV 52
Wimbledon's good start to the season continued with an efficient and bonus point victory over Bognor, although at half time on Saturday (October 22) it seemed as though they may not have taken full advantage of a strong wind on their backs.
However the home team never had the levels of fitness that Wimbledon have now achieved and they simply ran out of energy in a second half that saw Wimbledon score 38 points to 3.
Bognor opened the scoring after 15 minutes with a penalty from their scrum half Rob Parry after Wimbledon were judged to have wheeled the scrum, a second penalty attempt a few minutes later was missed and Wimbledon now started to put out their varied game of forwards and backs interlinking.
An attack moving the ball right – left – right led to a run by Andy Reilly who came off his wing and through the centre, his offload found firstly Nathan Kemp and then Joey Nanai following up to score under the posts. Leon Driscoll made no mistake with his first kick.
This score was followed on 38minutes by a lineout won by Rob Tait and in a drive by the forwards leading to Joey Nanai’s second try wide out on the right.
A second conversion followed, just before half time Bognor got back into the match with a lineout stolen and their centre Pat Gibbs ran 45 yards to score under the posts, Parry converted and the half ended with Bognor 14 – 10 behind and the wind on their backs to come.
A yellow card awarded against Wimbledon gave Bognor heart with the penalty for Parry from 20 yards, but from then on the match was all Wimbledon's. It all started with Chris Lewis coming on from the bench to make his first appearance at flanker for many months to replace Karl Roche.
A Bognor scrum was taken against the head and firstly Kemp, then Lewis moved the ball and led to a try for scrum half Charlie Morgan, the conversion was no problem for Driscoll, the bonus-point try came from Kemp through the middle of a scrum, Driscoll's kick from 35 yards was missed but shortly afterwards a run from deep by Jonny Rawlinson passed through Chris Lewis to put outside half Dan Browne in for a try, converted again.
The sixth try came from Lewis himself from a line-out, again converted, finally a tiring Bognor side saw prop Pete Wallace score at the end after a scrum that led to a forward drive, the conversion ended the match.
Despite not scoring himself, Wimbledon's best player was probably lock Rob Tait who was immense at gathering restart kicks, secure at the line-out and made an important contribution in open play.
November 4, 2011
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