Wimbledon Mavericks just too strong.

With Battersea Ironsides unable to host the Conference East League fixture and un-willing to travel to #fortressmeads the 2nd XV found themselves in need of a new fixture. Merton 2's from the Combination South division thought we would be too strong for them so looked elsewhere so we were forced to take a fixture against Wimbledon Mavericks from the Championship. Subsequent withdrawals from the team meant that only 16 players were ready to go at Kick Off and against a strong, well drilled, team doing pretty well in the league above so it was going to be, once again, be a tough day at the office ! We are not going to develop as a team without match time so it was better than not having a fixture at all.

The first half was pretty much one way traffic for the Mavericks they have powerful runners across the team and it was just too over-whelming for a make-shift Chipstead side once again having to ask players to play out of position. Only the Scrum set piece offered any rest-bite with the ever young Forrest, Jon W, Chey, Paul A and (actually young) Josh D able to dominate the opposition.

At half time stand-in Captain Forrest asked for a return to basics and keep the ball a little tighter and was rewarded with a scrum time penalty early on – with incredulous looks from the supporters Forrest confirmed that the kick for goal was on. He put his money where his mouth was and nailed the kick – his only reason was that he did not want to be beaten to Nil against anyone. What it actually caused was a 20 minute period of good play where Chipstead showed a bit of belief where they took the play to Wimbledon and were rewarded with a try by Small Paul A which was also converted by Forrest.

The game of headless chicken in the first half and the concerted effort to out-score the Mavericks in the 3rd quarter took its toll and the opposition were able to run another few tries in un-answered.

FT - Wimbledon Mavericks 62 v Chipstead 10 They have recorded it as 97-10 but they obviously double counted on some.......

Chipstead have two home league games left against the Old Whitgiftians and Old Mid-Whitgiftians and if they can start with the same appetite as the 3rd quarter on Saturday then they will be able to trouble both teams.