The scoreline, reflecting a five tries to one victory, gives little hint as to how hard Old Wimbledonians had to fight for the points from this fixture. The Police turned up with just fifteen players to face a full Wimbledon squad that is sitting comfortably in second place in the League. In glorious sunshine on the first day of spring, the match was a thunderous encounter from the first whistle. The handling of both sides would have been questionable in heavy rain but the tackling was beyond reproach, sometimes ground-shuddering in its intensity. The first half was evenly matched. Territory was given and taken while possession was shared. The Met were superior at the line-out while Wimbledonians were more disruptive at the scrummage, although Stirrup and Richards did well to minimise the hosts' advantage. Both sets of backs showed a great willingness to spread the ball wide and it brought out several magnificent cover tackles, not least from the Met's back three of Starkie, Butcher and Dylan Jones. Indeed Butcher, starting the game at full-back, proved a handful for Wimbledon in both offence and defence and with a little more familiarity, the Met may have made more of the metres he made. Jones looked dangerous although he never got the ball high enough up the field to really threaten the Old boys' line. Healy broke the line several times but even with support from his back-row the attack was rarely sustained. When Wimbledon threatened to score, the Met were able to disrupt and frustrate them. On two occasions, the Met were over zealous in their defence but two easy penalty kicks were poorly struck and the Police breathed again. On the half-hour mark, Old Wimbledonians broke the Met defence on the halfway line but outstanding defending by Butcher and Starkie prevented a certain try. It was Starkie's last involvement, injuring himself in the process and the Met faced a further 50 minutes with fourteen players.
With 10 minutes of the second half played, the Met were still very good value for the 0-0 scoreline, with Wimbledon unable to exploit the extra man. It took a somewhat baffling decision by the referee to open the floodgates. Wimbledon were threatening to score a try but the Met's defence battled relentlessly. As Wimbledon drove across the line the referee declared the ball "held up" but then allowed the attack to recycle the ball and run in the opening try. The conversion was missed and, although it would be over-stating it to say the floodgates opened, the wind was clearly taken out of the previously impregnable thin blue line. The Met mounted a promising attack but the home side countered and added a second try before an hour was reached. Old Wimbledonians sensed blood and soon notched up two more tries to secure a bonus point celebrating it with the only successful kick of their afternoon. The Met showed commendable spirit which resulted in a well-deserved try for No8 Dylan Richards but even with Cormac Healy's rapid conversion it was far too late to entertain a losing bonus point although the Police's efforts more than merited one. Old Wimbledonians charged up the other end and a weary Met were unable to keep out a fifth try. It should be noted that all five of the winners' tries were scored on the Met's left; a fill-in on the left wing for an injured Starkie may have made a significant difference.
Old Wimbledonians have cemented second place and promotion looks assured with a 13 point cushion, although Old Caterhamians are 6 points clear at the top. The Met look forward to three winnable fixtures to put themselves back into the top five and a respectable finish. If the Met can augment Saturday's starting XV with five to ten players of similar ability and application, fifth place will be an expectation rather than a hope.