London League 2 South. October 27, 2007.

This was a gutsy performance from Wimbledon. Facing such a weight and height deficit many sides would have gone down by 40 or 50 points. But despite living off scraps and no more than 20% of possession, they limited the superior home team to an 18 point winning margin.

Dons actually got on the scoreboard first, with a penalty from no.10 Elroy Cupido making a welcome return to the team and whose play impressed all match. But it was clear from the start that set scrums were going to be a real problem and the situation was not improved by the loss after prop Jaques Mangiagalli ten minutes into the game.

After being pinned in their own 22 for fifteen minutes a rare missed tackle let Heath's big no.8 in for a try under the posts, but in a disjointed, messy match Dons refused to let the home team turn possession into points after that, conceding just two penalties before half time, one cancelled out by a second Cupido penalty, following his own huge kick upfield.

With fifteen minutes of the game remaining and with centre Matt Wilcox also off injured, Heath had added only one penalty to take the score to 16-6, and with Dons ball-starved backs looking dangerous whenever they had a sniff of it, it was a pity they eventually conceded the inevitable pushover try. Still only fifteen points down though, no.8 Anton Kreel and scrum half Pete Jepson - who both had strong games in the most extenuating circumstances - made good forays from the base of the scrum, and full back Pete Burroughs and centre Dan Smith in particular showed just what this back line would be capable of given some ball. But it was too steep a hill to climb and a final Heath penalty sealed a 24-6 defeat.

Wimbledon somehow have to find some grunt from somewhere or they'll face more of the same this season, beginning with Chobham at home next week.