Thumping Victory to Begin League Campaign

This was the first league game of the season for the Hornets, but also the first time the second team at Farnham had played this high, in the prestigious top merit league. Farnham kicked off in temperate overcast conditions and immediately took the fight to the opposition.

Credit must go to Effingham & Leatherhead who travelled for an away game with only 14 men. They could quite easily have not bothered, but instead turned up and played with fight for the entire 80 minutes.

Tom Martin started at fly-half for the home side and immediately forged a good relationship with young Ben Brown at scrum half. On an aside note, the Brown family had an incredible day with family members starting a scrum half for all three senior teams on Saturday, a brilliant achievement.

Some strong carrying immediately from Dan Ross and Dan Greene in midfield got Farnham well into E & L territory before hands along the back line saw Josh Curran dive over in the corner, a great finish.

It was clear that with a one man disadvantage, E & L couldn’t live with Farnham when we spread it across the entire width of the pitch, however the Hornets often struggled with decision making and didn’t get the timing right on passes. This is not unexpected so early in the season but something to work on at training.

Tom Martin was running with menace from the fly half position and wriggled through a gap like an electric eel, getting the second score on the board. The only successful Hornets’ conversion of the day was taken, Farnham ahead 12-0 after 20 minutes.

Effingham and Leatherhead were determined to battle on and competed at the set piece and rucks well. Their left winger made several good runs but was always brought down by good cover defence. When the opposition forwards tried to run through midfield they were thwarted by strong tackling from debutant Will Jackson and pack leader Tom Foster.

After 30 minutes the scrums became uncontested, much to the disappointment of props Keith Harding and Jules Joris.

As half time approached, the Hornets up the work rate again and two further tries resulted. Lock Joe Curran expertly passed out to his younger, faster brother on the wing, who again scored in the corner for his second of the day. Only three minutes later Dan Greene, fitter this season than ever before, offered some great running support and wasn’t to be stopped from two metres out. At the break Farnham lead 22-0.

Team manager Sid Cranstone made a few changes at half time and the team promised to execute more and play less frantically. The Hornets received the ball and began a maul which seemed to last for two to three minutes, drifting around the midfield until the referee finally signalled a scrum might be better. This match featured some brilliant hand-offs from the Hornets players, the first from hooker Dan Ross which is usually reserved for Hampshire criminals. The second was from Tom Martin, who delivered the would-be-tackler back with such force, that it resembled more of a finishing move on video game Mortal Combat. This huge hand-off released him onward to score his second of the day.

Within two minutes the Hornets were on the attack again and excellent handling by Mark Baines and Rex Rakata put Josh Curran over in the corner for his hatrick. Tremendous work from the winger.

The game was beginning to fragment and this was personified by the try scored by winger Ben Mahony. He sprinted 40 yards and passed all defenders to score another.

Taryke van Rensburg came on at scrum half and immediately looked mischievous. He ran several times through midfield, before passing on to supporting players and bringing others into the game. Dan Ross scored a well-deserved try after running hard all game, he boshed his way over on a pick-and-drive.

Replacement prop, Christoff Le Frenchman was disappointed with the lack of scrummaging but somehow still managed to get into a bit of a scrap with his opposite man! After the referee calmed the situation down, Christoff actually scored a try on the left side of the pitch, catching the ball above his head and running in from 5 metres out.

Charlie Badgery had entered the game as a winger and didn’t get many opportunities to carry the ball. However he did offer some strong tackling in defence, keeping his opposite man from making any break away tries. Rich Tyler also debuted from the bench and played well around the rucks.

To their credit, E & L battled to the very end, their captain Sam Manning scoring a try at the death in the far left corner. This was also converted.

The final score was 47-7 to Farnham and a great win to start the league campaign. The team can certainly play better but a 40 point win in this league is certainly worth celebrating. Next week, the Hornets face off against Kingston 1st XV away.

Written by Oli Richford.