WESTCLIFF suffered an afternoon to forget against Wimbledon in National Three London & SE on Saturday, losing 55-20 at home to high-flying Wimbledon.

Westcliff had three back line players drop out with sickness on the morning of the match.

And their director of rugby Rick Compton admitted his patched up side had been second best at the Gables.

“There is no getting away from it, Saturday was a chastening experience and the day went from bad to worse very early on,” said Compton.

“Losing three key players in the morning was a nightmare and if it never happens again it will be too soon.

“But it was still very disappointing how poorly we dealt in the first half with strong direct running by Wimbledon.

“They are a good side with a lot of maturity and experience allied with power and pace but we let the unfortunate circumstances get into our heads and we were a long way from doing ourselves justice.

“The second half was much better with a lot of effort, commitment and courage and it is that which we will take from the game as we look forward and prepare for our visit to Guildford in two weeks’ time.

“In the meantime we will be hoping for good news from both the medical table and the sick bed.”

Despite the final score-line, Westcliff led 6-5 after 10 minutes of play thanks to two penalties from Jack Jones.

But second placed Wimbledon were quick to identify hesitation and uncertainty in the rearranged home defence and they exploited them with devastating and ruthless efficiency scoring seven further tries in the final 25 minutes of the half as Westcliff missed or fell off tackle after tackle.

The final act of the half was the conversion of the last of these tries which gave Wimbledon a 50-6 lead at the break.

Clearly the game was now lost for the home-side.

But, despite the disarray, it was important that Westcliff responded for a second half that could progress very quickly from embarrassment to humiliation.

To their credit Westcliff were far more competitive after the break and conceded just one further try while scoring two of their own which were duly converted.

The first was a justified penalty try.

And the second was scored by Jack Hopkins who broke through stubborn defence under the posts in the final 10 minutes to make the final score 55-20.

Westcliff have now lost five of their first six games this season and sit 12th in the 14 team table.

Westcliff: O Jones, Lowe, Dudman, Marsh, Merrick, J Jones, Branch, Lane, Macintyre, Binneman, Edwards, Scoggins, Maloney, Jobling, Vandermolen Replacements: Skidmore, Hopkins & Smith