Farnham Top of the Pops

League leaders Farnham travelled up to Raynes Park to play old rivals Old Wimbledonians, an old rival of the club from yesteryear. Facilities at Raynes were dry and firm underfoot and a surprisingly large crowd was looking forward to some running rugby and entertainment.
The Farnham team largely unchanged except for the returning Bond on the open side of the pack, kicked off in confident mood. Farnham had an early penalty against them for feeding in the scrum, but seemed unperturbed and play remained in the central 20m of the pitch for the first few encounters. A poor scrum that saw the ball exit from the side was not spotted by the ref and Old Wimbledonians span wide at pace only stopped by dedicated Farnham tackling, unfortunately this left space on the right that was exploited straight away and the right winger ran in an easy starter for 5. Farnham went straight on the attack, and from a close line out the Farnham pack rolled the maul and from the following ruck no. 8 Daly drove over to level the score, Rubio dually converted. With their tails up Farnham kept on the attack and soon saw winger Meagher tackled just short of the line, a resulting scrum was collapsed and from the penalty Daly did a quick tap and crashed to just short of the line allowing Chiverton to pick up and score from inside of a meter, Rubio dually converted leaving Farnahm 14-5 up.
Almost immediately Old Ws came back with a break through the middle and two missed tackles allowed the centre to score easily bringing their total to 10 and reducing the gap. The Farnham pack then gave away a penalty for coming in from the side and to the crowd’s amazement an Old W player tapped and ran in 20m unopposed taking the lead back and extending it with the conversion. Farnham’s forwards looked very strong and with accurate kicking from fly half Penn moved back down the pitch until they were able to release to the wing where Daly waltzed over to score and end the half at 19 to 17.
The second half started well for Old Ws with Farnham still not tuned in and early pressure saw them exploit the blind and score an easy try in the corner to take a 22-19 lead. Strong runs from Corlett and Penn were repulsed by Wimbledonians, but the Farnham pack were starting to dominate, with rolling mauls controlled by Bond and strong charges from props Black and Yeomans. The Old Ws scrum then conceded a penalty in front of the post and Rubio stepped up to level the score. Further pressure saw Farnham camped on our own line, a certain try stopped by Comley’s tackle. The pressure was released by a good clearance from Rubio, letting Farnham attack again. The forwards then showed their pace with what can only be called a 35m running rolling maul before Penn kicked to touch. With the game coming fast to its conclusion the power of the pack caused Old Ws to concede a penalty again in front of the post, Rubio calmly slotted the ball through the uprights and to the huge relief of the support, Farnham took the lead with only a few minutes to go and held on for a very important win.
A great game from all the forwards, hard running from the front row, some excellent line out work from Harrison .Hard running from Daly and Simmonds, and superb organisation from Bond.
The next game is this Saturday against title rivals Old Tiffs.