There is a very famous quote by the legendary Scottish Coach Jim Telfer.
“You cannae blame the conditions, you cannae blame the weather, you cannae blame the referee”.
After this performance a number of the Farnham players have to put their hands up. It was a dismal performance from the players and frustrating for the visiting spectators.
Farnham played with the breeze in the first half with a slight downhill advantage towards the Chichester club house. All of the portents were good – Rob Mitchell back at No.8, Jamie Lowe into the second row and Pete Daly on the bench. The scrum started well, Azevado, Joris and Edwards wearing down the opposition from the start. The line out, mediocre this season to date, began to function with Ben Adams and Toby Comley dominating both on Farnham’s throw and snaffling some of the home sides ball. All in all a good start.
Then eight minutes in Joris was adjudged to have tip tackled the home fly half and was banished to the sin bin for 10, what proved to be very long, minutes for the Black and Whites. From the resulting penalty Chichester opted for the scrum five metres out and rumbled over for the try. The full back kicker making the into the wind conversion look easy.
From the kick off Farnham went on the attack and got into their stride but the final pop pass was intercepted freeing up their speedy left winger who skipped through two tackles to score in the corner. 12-0. Worse was to come, the next move broke down in the home 22 and a raking clearance kick into the Farnham half was chased down by the rampant home backs. Winger Reece Stennet unfortunately slipped when recovering the ball and was swamped by the marauding Chichester centres who won the turnover and put in the winger for his second. 19-0 in 10 minutes.
The Farnham defence was pulled apart, in effect gifting the opposition two tries. Frustration mounted in the visiting ranks – Farnham on the attack and again a loose offload eagerly seized upon by the right winger to steal away and score in the corner. 24-0 at a point a minute. The visitors were being caught flat footed, tackles continued to be missed and Chichester, despite playing into the breeze, had all of the momentum. Back they came and from a line out on half way their powerful inside centre crashed through the defence and over for the score. 29-0.
Farnham could have no excuses the defensive line was ragged and important tackles were being missed time and time again.
There had to be a resurgence and, with half time approaching, Fly half Toby Salmon provided the first spark with a break through the home defence to free up brother Tim for a consolation first half try. 29-5. The penalty count against Chichester began to mount 4-5-6 of which two were cynical to stop try scoring opportunities. Still the referee took no further action. Half time after what had been a frustrating, harrowing half for the visitors.
To get back into the game Farnham had to score first but now into the breeze and swirling drizzle it was always going to be a big task. The normally electric Farnham backs were taking all their passes standing still, no forward impetus and easy pickings for the home defence. Frustration mounted again – the word of the season.
Another mix up in mid field and the Chichester inside centre on hand to smash his way over for his second. Easy conversion. 36-5.
Farnham had fared better for the first twenty minutes of the second half, close to scoring but silly mistakes denied them tries. Scrum penalty won – line out drive and then a knock on one metre short.
Again the rugby demons did their work with Tim Salmon yellow carded for holding on with just 12 minutes to go. Nothing was going Farnham’s way. From the penalty the home right winger went over wide out to increase the score. Back came the visitors with time running out and, at last, a flowing backs move put Reece Stennet over out wide. Too little too late.
The clock was in the red as, once again, the weary Farnham defence was breached. A brilliant touch line kick on the final whistle and Chichester reached the half century to secure a thumping win
50-10.
The Farnham boys could have excuses but as the great Jim Telfer said “You’ve just got to get on with it.” This was a Wake Up call for the boys on a day when only the scrums and the line outs went well – the rest of the play, particularly after the last few weeks, was disjointed and careless. Again lessons have to be learned.
Podium
Ben Adams – 3 points led from the front for the full eighty minutes
Marco Azevado – 2 for the third week running demolished his opposite number.
Toby Comley – 1 papered over a lot of the cracks.