Old Wimbledonians march on in Junior Vase (From Surrey Comet)

Old Wimbledonians march on in Junior Vase

10:17am Monday 23rd January 2012 in Other Rugby By Eddie Bell

The Junior Vase dream continues for Old Wimbledonians after they beat Midhurst 24-18 on Saturday.

The excellent away victory against a young fired-up Midhurst side was a triumph for resilience and dogged patience.

A howling gale blew the length of the pitch and the home side took first benefit of it scoring 18 points in the opening 40 minutes.

However, victory was earned by the fact that before the interval the visitors had themselves scored two tries, converting one of them, to make the second-half task much easier.

That they finished only six points ahead was due to poor use of the strong breeze and that they were not able to put the Midhurst side under continual pressure and indeed had to soak up too much pressure themselves.

However, in cup and league rugby the final scoreline is what matters and the Old Wimbledonians advance into the last eight of the Junior Vase.

An early Midhurst penalty was countered by an excellent try by Paddy Donaghy out on the right which due to the wind Tom Harwood could not convert.

Two tries were then scored quickly by by the home side, each down largely to poor or non-existent tackling.

Both teams had moments in the ascendancy, neither scoring until nine minutes before the interval when Harwood, playing at stand-off half, caught a loose clearance kick from a Midhurst forward and darted through a maze of players to to score under the posts and convert his own try.

An inexplicable offside decision against the Old Boys enabled Midhurst to lead 18-12 at the half-time break.

In the second period, the visitors put themselves under too much pressure by not using the wind to keep the opposition deep inside their own territory, instead mostly finding defenders who ran the ball back at them.

However, some sterling defence by Charles Pretorius, Phil Reid and Emil Krugman finally kept Midhurst at bay and with two further tries from James Hodgson and Mumtaz Habibullah, the first of which was converted by Harwood, secured a well deserved victory.

Next Saturday we return to league rugby with the return fixture against London South Africa.