Farnham welcomed London Scottish Lions to Monkton Lane for round 6. The lions also achieved promotion last season and started the season well with 4 wins from 5. Farnham handed a debut to Chris Te Mete at 6 and were bolstered by the returning Shawa Rai at 7. Alex Young started at 13 and the visitors kicked off the game.

Farnham started well with the front row of Pickett, Vincent and Azevedo dominating the first scrum. Harry West released Oscar Henderson down the right with a penalty awarded moments later. They kicked to the corner and set up the rolling maul well and Adam Pickett dived over for his first score of the season. Conversion successful, 7-0. The set piece was giving Farnham great platform and were creating several opportunities. An injury to Shawa Rai meant a reshuffle with Matt Kouris coming on and Jonny Vincent moving to 7. The Farnham attack was well balanced with halfbacks Harry West and Ollie Brown in full control. A few close phases and Farnham eventually broke down the lions defence when Toby Salmon’s offload released Alex Young who finished off well in the corner. Conversion successful, 14-0.

The lions started putting some attacking phases together and tested Farnham defensively for the first time. Farnham defence coach Sam Voight and new man Chris Te Mete led the defence charge and forced a knock on. A Farnham lineout in their own 22 came loose and Matt Kouris pounced on the ball and broke away before being brought down on the halfway line. The ball was recycled and was moved down the line through Ollie Brown and Toby Salmon before Alex Young released the speedy Ben Stevens who won the footrace and scored in the corner. A great breakout try and the conversion was also converted. 21-0. The lions came back though and used their rolling maul effectively and scored their first try in the left hand corner. Conversion missed. 21-5
With 5 minutes left in the half, Farnham wanted to finish strong and were awarded a penalty 5 meters out. They elected to scrum and the forwards drove towards the line with Oscar Henderson controlling the ball well and dotted down for the bonus point try. Conversion successful, 28-5. Half time shortly followed and an excellent first 40 from the home side.

Farnham kicked off and carried on where they left off. They spent the first 5 minutes camped in the lions 22 however just couldn’t take their chances. The lineout started to be a bit of a lottery and first 15 minutes of the 2nd half were scoreless. A Farnham scrum gave them good platform however a lose pass was scooped up by the lions flyhalf who showed good pace to score in the corner. Conversion missed, 28-10. Jeff Leybourne came on in the front row and Joey Wood came on in the centres. A missed penalty from Farnham kept the gap at 18 and still felt like another score was needed. This happened moments later when Joey Wood broke through the middle and brilliantly got an offload away to Toby Salmon who had an easy run in. Conversion successful, 35-10 and surely game over.

However the lions had other ideas and started attacking from everywhere with complete freedom. A brilliant offload from their winger found the fly half who acrobatically dived in at the corner for his 2nd try. Conversion missed, 35-15. Minutes later they were in again with their scrum half finishing off and also adding the extras to make it 35-22 with 5 minutes remaining. Nerves were starting to appear and when a speculative crossfield kick was well collected by the right winger and then finished off in the corner, the crowd was stunned. Thankfully the conversion was missed and the score was 35-27 with 2 minutes remaining. Farnham held on and collected the 5 points and will be happy with the first 70 minutes of the game but for the 2nd week in a row, finished poorly.

The result sees us climb to 5th in the table but only 1 point behind 2nd. An away trip to Worthing awaits next week and will be a coach trip so any supporters welcome.

Presidents podium:
3- Chris Te Mete
2- Jonny Vincent
1- Toby Salmon