Gritty Sandown fail to halt Farnham title charge

By Geoff Bond

Thanks to Steve Tomlinson and his team of volunteers the pitch was in unbelievably good condition for the start of Saturday’s game against Sandown and Shanklin (S&S). On Friday afternoon it had been under water!
The guest referee from the East Midlands signalled the start of the match under clear blue skies and blustery winds.
Farnham were disrupted by injuries but were still expected to be too powerful for the islanders. The away fixture in October saw Farnham win 57-10. The home supporters were expecting another romp.
However, the joy of sport’s uncertainty prevailed and S&S chose to spoil the party. Their organisation and spirit was transformed from the earlier fixture as their results on the road have shown. Six straight wins had seen them fifth in the table after a faltering start. Their confidence was high.
In the early exchanges, the home side forwards repeated their powerful and successful pick and drive game. 40 year old veteran Barney Hart was drafted in at prop to replace the injured Jennings and flanker Dean Chiverton replaced Rushton at hooker.
The swirling wind and a sticky surface proved to be great levellers with both sides failing to sustain any meaningful advantage. The play was confined to the ground between the 22s as both sides probed for a gap.
Ben Rubio at 9 is in fine form this season and with Chris Penn at 10 conducting the orchestra, the Farnham backs began to penetrate further and further into the S&S red zone. Centres Salmon and Corlett both drove hard crash balls and with the Farnham back row’s superior size telling, three quick rucks released full back Andy Freshwater to pick the cut back line and slice through the visitor’s defence.
The blustery wind did for Rubio’s attempt at the extras.
Having opened the scoring, Farnham began to enjoy supremacy at the tight with a series of powerful scrums. Again the back row powered to the posts for the unstoppable No 8 Pete Daly to crash over the try line. A simple conversion pushed Farnham's lead to 12-0 after just ten minutes. Were the floodgates about to open?
The 2014 S&S model is made of far sterner stuff than the previous mark. While they failed to threaten the home team’s line, their defence swarmed all afternoon to frustrate and blunt the home attacks. Without speedster Ed Weeks and the flying fullback Gabe Hills, the Farnham attack was strangely sterile with move after move breaking down and petering out. The crash ball up the middle was often swallowed up by an all-enveloping defence.
The second half opened with a sequence of Farnham driving mauls eating up yards of the pitch. However the visitors continued to battle their way out of trouble and now with the wind at their backs they could push Farnham back with howitzer-distance kicks. Chiverton, Daly, Crabb and Bond would make the necessary hard yards back only for the attack to be neutralised by the islanders at the final critical moment.
With twenty minutes remaining the visitors' resolve began to wilt and Farnham injected some new energy. Richard Phillips came on for James Franklin after a typically massive shift on the flank and Ben Crean replaced Fran Meagher after another immaculate and aggressive defensive display.
Driven on by Trodden and the fresh legs of Philips, the hard yards began to pay off. After a lineout catch Simmons, driven on by Bond and Daly, inched towards the try-line As Simmons was held up, the ball was taken forward by Crabb and on to Rubio who squeezed under desperate defenders to claim the try. Converting his own try, Rubio pushed the lead out to 19-0.
With the clock running down Farnham finally broke S&S’ defensive shackles. Philips took the ball from the kick off to launch an attack from deep in the home 22. He linked with Crabb who drove through the middle before feeding Rubio who spun the ball out to Penn. Quick passes along the back line, at pace, released skipper Toby Comley to score the bonus point try in the corner.
For most of the match Farnham had been frustrated by this gritty, uncompromising Hampshire XV but a 24-0 win and five valuable league points in the bag, they could feel content with their afternoon’s work.
Farnham are now 14 points clear at the top of the league with five games remaining. The next fixture is at home against mid-table Purley John Fisher on March 1st.