Bastard 2s go down to a strong Wimbledon side
Hammersmith and Fulham 2nd XV arrived at Wimbledon RFC looking to build on the momentum of a strong home performance against Horsham after a break between games.
The match began as a finely balanced contest. Hammersmith enjoyed early dominance in the scrum but struggled to find their rhythm in the lineout, two key themes that continued to develop throughout the game. The Bastards struggled to exit their half, a task made harder by a strong headwind and an uphill gradient that would put the Tour De France to shame.
Daniel Whittaker stood out with powerful carries, later making him the Hammers’ forward-of-the-match. Despite some good work, the Hammers soon found themselves going down a try before Valerio Marcantognini was shown a yellow card for diving headfirst into a ruck.
Hammers struggled to assert themselves while down to 14 men, with Wimbledone seizing the opportunity to score 18 points—35% of the total points conceded—during the 10-minute period. The hosts closed out the first half strongly, leaving Hammersmith with a mountain to climb.
After the break, the Bastards bounced back with two well-worked tries from Seb Rivett and Oscar Norman, both crossing the line early in the second half. Nick Craigen added both conversions. The Hammers’ kickers also began to settle into the game, improving their kicking from hand and to touch. Sam Smith also managed to rack up an impressive number of tackles in centres making him the back-of-the-match.
However, issues at the ruck continued to plague the mighty 2s with ball retention and slow ball making it difficult to build a platform from which to attack. Despite the change in half and a chance to use the downhill slope to our advantage, Hammers failed to capitalise. An injury saw Miles O’Connor forced off – Wimbledon, by contrast, had a deep bench of 10 men which allowed them to keep exerting pressure into the final minutes, producing several late scores as they coasted in under the posts.
In the end the weather reflected the Bastards performance with torrential rain being punctuated by short periods of blue sky – it was a difficult day out for the 2s who never stopped fighting, but who can’t complain about the result with a strong Wimbledon squad laying down a very one-sided result.
Final result 51-14