Wimbledon..........................42

Woodford..............................8

(London League Div One)

THE tables were turned on Woodford following last week's excellent victory over Harlow.

This time, it was a considerably changed Woodford team who underperformed and Wimbledon were able to exert all the pressure.

In a display which Ian Palmer, Woodford's director of rugby, described as "probably our worst performance of the season," there was only ever one team in the game.

The home side had a marked size advantage in the pack and their scrum-half's exceptionally long pass gave their strong running backs the initial space for manoeuvre.

Woodford were unable to recapture their previous drive and commitment and surrendered possession with several wayward kicks that failed to find touch.

The Highams outfit opened promisingly and gained good possession from the loose ball, but their lack of physical presence allowed the quick home defence to snuff out any danger.

Wimbledon began to look threatening midway through the first half, driving around the scrum and moving the ball well along the back line, in contrast to Woodford's more sedate efforts.

Wimbledon's pace was constantly troubling the Woodford defence and the floodgates began to open, three converted tries and two more penalties arriving before half-time.

The visitors' only reply came from the boot of Atkinson to leave a depressing 30-3 deficit at the break.

The scoring was more evenly divided in the second half, two more tries from Wimbledon being countered by a well worked effort from Childs.

But it was never going to be enough to salvage anything from this match.

A disappointed Palmer said: "If you'd seen both games you wouldn't recognise us as being the same team.

"We played very well last week and very badly this week. We weren't up to scratch, defended badly and conceded too many tries."

Woodford must pick themselves up and establish their authority over lower division Lowesoft and Yarmouth in the fourth-round of the National Provincial Insurance Cup at Highams on Saturday, a match that kicks off at 2pm.

Other results: Woodford Extra 1st 7 Hertford 51, Extra A 43 Dagenham 15, Woodford B 36 Barnet 0. Youth: Woodford Colts 48 Cheshunt 0, Woodford under-16 20 Rochford 20, under-14 30 Sevenoaks 19. Minis: Woodford v Braintree; under-12 10-0, under-11 7-22, under-10 30-0, under-9 15-5, under-8 20-20, under-7 15-20. Woodford v Colchester: under-12: 29-0, under-11: 49-0, under-10: 15-0, under-9: 0-35, under-8: 20-25, under-7: 0-20.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.