Farnham Under 14 A's v Old Rutts A's

Score
Farnham U14 5 - 25 Old Ruts

Farnham Scorers
Callum Todd 5 pts

Report
Our first league game of the season and despite the fact that this was a loss the team played the best rugby we have played for some time. We were very good and if pressure and possession were the requirements for a win we would have taken the game…….but of course they are not its about converting these into tries!!

Last year in our first game against Old Ruts the game was called off after 15 minutes as we had been comprehensively beaten by then. This was not the case today and every single one of the boys made a huge contribution which gives us a very good basis for winning more games this season than last year.

We matched and beat the physicality of Old Ruts in the team play as we dominated the contact and rucked the other team off the park, not allowing them to play a rucking game as they had obviously planned. The tries that were scored by Old Ruts were in the main where there was a one one one mismatch in physical size of their runners against our players, three of which were against the run of play in terms of possession and pitch position.

Old Ruts were deserving winners but I think we were due a couple more tries which we were denied to us by a combination of not taking the right option to spin the ball wide quickly after the forwards had steamrollered their forwards a few times and by a lot of infringing by their players which in more senior rugby would probably have seen a couple of yellow cards for constant spoiling of our ball and play whilst we camped out on their line. We however have to learn how to turn constant pressure into points for us.

Our commitment in the tackle was incredible with everyone putting in a big shift with NOT one person avoiding contact or the tackle. I would make particular mention of Harry Switala, Ross Fraser and Ollie Greenwood made huge tackles of bigger players in the midfield, one made by Harry was an absolute corker!!

Our forwards dominated the rucks and the scrummaging. They were the architects of our try which was then span wide to be finished extremely well by Callum who used his strength to run through tackles from close quarters to score a much deserved try.

Whilst I think everyone played well I want to make specific mention of three of our subs: Patrick Major, Ollie Greenwood and Alex Weatherall who came of the bench and made big impacts. I would also single out Harry at fly half who had a great game.

All of the boys should be very proud of their commitment and play today and I am very excited by our prospects for the rest of the season.

Well done

Simon McGinn