The 13^th of the month may be unlucky for some but Farnham will consider themselves fortunate to walk away from this gritty encounter with a point after a hard fought draw.

The cold blustery conditions did not help as most of the match was played in the middle of the park interspersed with nail biting breaks by Rosslyn into Farnham’s 22 only to be fought back to the middle to begin the process again.  Once or twice Farnham found their rhythm with some hard scrummaging followed by some close handling to break through the Rosslyn defence.  The most successful of these was rewarded with a vital try just on cusp of half time.

Farnham won the toss and kicked off, playing downhill into the wind.  Rosslyn’s fly half took the catch and was immediately tackled by Josh Parkin, Rosslyn regained the ball in the ruck and kicked to touch. 

Farnham lost the line out and then won the ball again on the second tackle.  Farnham made a few yards towards the Rosslyn 22 and then gave the ball away in a not infrequent handling error.  On the subsequent play, Rosslyn won the ball from a scrum swiftly moved the ball out to their Wing, who ran virtually unopposed to the line for their first try. 

Farnham battled back making steady progress down the hill only to knock-on or lose a line out in a key attacking position.  And so it continued until just before half time when Farnham were awarded a scrum just 10m from Rosslyn’s line.  Jack Walsingham, No 8, picked it up from the back of the scrum and crashed through the Rosslyn defence for Farnham's equalising try.

Neither try was converted so half time came about with both teams 5 points each.

The second half restarted in much the same way as the first.  Rosslyn now had downhill and home advantage and tested Farnham’s defence at every opportunity.  Handling errors abounded on both sides and that, fortunately, took the sting out of Rosslyn’s more promising attacks. 

Farnham did mount a few counter attacks for which Josh Bence deserves credit, his runs down the wing clearly tested Rosslyn, and twice it looked like he was in, only to be bundled into touch, or tackled a few meters from the line, for his efforts.

Rosslyn Park were worthy opponents and excellent hosts.  the game was played in the spirit of good rugby and the referree controlled the game with a blend of humour, discipline and free flowing rugby.  He is to be highly recommended for his efforts and more importantly the boys enjoyed it!

The match ended with the honours’ shared 5-5.