London Scottish 7 Farnham Academy 24

Farnham Academy put on another impressive display away at London Scottish winning this non-league encounter  by  24  points to 7 and running in four impressive tries.  The Academy is now unbeaten since October.

A heavy down-poor at Richmond just before kick off created a difficult surface for running rugby and in the first minute skipper and fly half Ben Rubio took a knock forcing an early substitution.  Nevertheless Farnham played all the rugby and kept the ball in the London Scottish half.  After 15 minutes the pressure told and Hector Hoyte-Bone touched down under the posts following his speciality tap-and-go penalty.  Michael Salmon converted.

The game was evenly contested for the remainder of the half and there was no further score. Early in the second period speedster full back and man of the match Gabe Hills took a clearance kick in the Farnham 22, darted through the first line of defence, wrong footed the cover and glided in under the posts for a try which Salmon converted.

With a healthy lead established, Academy coach Geoff Bond was able to ring the changes and bring on two Internationals, Ryan Wilson (Scotland U20) and Joe MacManus (Ireland U18).

 Playing at scrum-half, MacManus soon made an impact.  Tacking a quick tap penalty at the edge of the Scottish 22, he spun the ball to the backs where outside centre Rob West broke the defensive line and popped the ball to winger Dom Parker to score in the corner.

London Scottish kept at it and were eventually awarded a penalty try for an infringement on the Farnham try-line on the one occasion in the match they threatened it. Not long after,  No 8 Wilson scored  the final try  for Farnham . He picked up at the base of a scrum 15 meters out and used  the considerable power that has caught the eyes of Scotland's selectors to burst though the blind side defence.

“Another good performance from a talented bunch of players,” said Bond.  “It was great to be able to give our two internationals a run.  While they made their impact on the game as individuals, their main contribution was to their team mates.  Playing alongside quality such as Ryan and Joe is worth any number of training sessions.   It was a great set up for  next week’s  must win league fixture at Wimbledon.”