Mighty Hornets Win Again

The Hornets were moved onto the best pitch of the four available, for what would be their first outing on the smaller veterans pitch.

Old Blues rocked up with a grizzled and wily set of forwards, but a backline that didn’t seem to know each other very well. They kicked off and the game was underway. The first few rucks for Farnham were not defended well and the Old Blues hooker mischievously counter-rucked and made a nuisance of himself. After a few scrums things settled down and on his first attempt running at the Old Blues backline, Andy James made a good break. Unfortunately the pass he made to a supporting runner was knocked on, however he had shown that there were gaps in the defence to be exploited.

New addition to the team, inside centre Rex made his presence felt within the first ten minutes with a tackle flown in from the South Pacific! This left his opposite man, the ball carrier, in a crumpled heap for a few moments. With the ball back, the Hornets gained territory and won a kickable penalty in the Old Blues half. Andy James slotted this through to take the score to 3-0.

A bit of slack discipline from Farnham meant gave up a penalty which Old Blues kicked to level the scores. Overall, the territory was fairly even, although one unfortunate kick saw the ball go further sideways than forward. Rumours are the Mr Kipling and Hovis are both in negotiations to sign Andy James, after he demonstrated such excellent slicing ability.

To be fair, he brushed this off well and soon put Farnham into the lead with another penalty kick, making it 6-3. Fast rushing defence from Rob Brown constantly put pressure on the Old Blues attack and led to them making mistakes in midfield time and again. Prop Lenny Jennings, brandishing more tape than a 1990s Blockbuster store, defended well at the fringes, tackling ball carriers backward when they decided to pick and go from the ruck.

The Hornets weathered pressure as the half moved to its climax, and then made a strong attack when the opportunity arose. Ollie Brown marshalled the attack left and right from scrum half, delivering clean ball to Dan Greene to crash through the gain line. On the front foot, Farnham moved the ball left and right, looking for overlaps and mismatches to exploit. A penalty on the far right hand side was quickly taken and with the sort of swagger displayed by Bruce Willis in the recent Die Hard film, Dan Ross dived over to score. The difficult conversion attempt was unsuccessful so the score, as it would be at half time, was 11-3.

Just before the referee blew up for half time, an exchange of kicks between the teams saw fullback John Weldon calmly catch the ball and return a kick of his own. The opposition back three player caught the ball and looked to attack on the ground, but Weldon scythed him down as he was passing away.

A few changes were made at half time and the Hornets went into the second half with renewed vigour. Another penalty kick from Andy James saw Farnham stretch the lead to 14-3. Old Blues, to their credit, recognised their strengths and after winning a penalty kicked the ball into the corner. The lineout was then caught and mauled across the line. The conversion was missed to take the score to 14-8. If you lean forward, put your ear to the page; that is the sound of the crowd when they scored.

Another spell of pressure made it look like the Farnham defence might yield again, but courageous defending from Captain Tom Foster, who put his body on the line for the full 80 minutes, stopped them getting over. Greg Mungall made several key turnovers, finding himself in the middle of the breakdown, proving to be a thorn in the side for Old Blues.

Mark Baines had a few attempts on the wing, but could not find a way through. On the other wing Tom March made a strong tackle on a looping Old Blues attacker. Play was stopped for what might have been a dangerous tackle, however it was agreed that the ball carrier had jumped into the tackle, which assisting in March putting him firmly on his backside.

As the game entered its final phases, another break from Andy James put Matt Kelleher into space. Despite being the fastest prop in the land, the opposition winger was able to cover across and tangled enough with Kelleher’s legs to bring him down inside the 22. Excellent support saw the ball hit up, and then moved wide from Ollie Brown to Andy James, back to a looping Brown before he popped the ball to Rex who powered over. The conversion was missed but shortly another penalty was added by Andy James to take his total to 12 points on the day. The final score was Farnham 22, Old Blues 8.

Seb Murray had his strongest game yet on the flank, consistently tackling, getting to the breakdown fast and harassing the opposition scrum throughout. Praise must also go to the lineout where the forwards really excelled, often getting the ball with precision to jumpers at four or six. The mighty Hornets proved they can win ugly as well as win pretty as they have in previous weeks.

By Oli Richford