Lack of execution costs Hornets

Bec kicked off and Seb Murray caught the high ball. Early attacks looked promising with Taryke Van Rensburg finding space on the wings. Unfortunately he would be taken off after 20 minutes due to a chest injury when he tried to dive on a ball that was bouncing into the in-goal area.

The first points of the game went to Bec who pounced on a mistake in the Farnham back-line. The ball was kicked through, ricocheting like a pin-ball and chased by the Bec winger. He then dived on the ball to score in the corner and go 5-0 ahead. This was a scrappy and disappointing try to concede.

Farnham fought back and through some solid carrying in the midfield by Dan Ross and Jim Hyman, made progress up the pitch. Henry Milas received the ball out wide and cut back, past the defenders and dived over in the centre to score. Connor Rumpson converted and took the score to 5-7.

Despite the slope, the Hornets were dominant in attack and it wasn’t long before Farnham scored another, Mark Baines passing to Rex who scored, diving low on the right wing. The difficult conversion was missed and the Hornets lead 5-12.

A penalty kick by Bec took the score to 8-12 before the Hornets had to defend a consistent spell of pressure from Bec at the end of the half. Bec moved the ball with the forwards initially and then tried to score in the backs. A brilliantly timed tackle by Rob Brown saw him hit the centre just as he caught the ball, however his opposite man did well to hold on as the full force of the hit knocked him to the floor. Back with the forwards again, Bec punched a hole through and just managed to get the ball down. The conversion was successful and this took the score to 15-12 at half time.

A few changes followed and then the Hornets got back to work. Superb scrummaging from Lenny Jennings and the rest of the front five pulverised the Bec set-piece, stopping them from winning much of their own put in. Seb Murray and Dave Dyer were also a constant threat in the lineout, winning ball when both teams threw in.

However handling errors were frequent and the Hornets also kicked away a lot of ball. It was the finer details that perhaps let down the Hornets and stopped them playing like the well-oiled machine of recent weeks. A cross-field kick by Bec could have been better defended by Farnham, but strong support play by the opposition allowed them to offload as the ball progressed toward the Farnham line, eventually the prop dived over to score and take the score to 20-12.

With ten minutes left the Hornets were now under pressure to find two scores to get back into the game. Unfortunately they just couldn’t make things work as well as they had done in previous weeks. Some nice looping moves in midfield opened some gaps, but the Bec defence smothered the runners before support could get there to keep the ball moving. The game finished 20-12 to Bec. Credit to Tom March who played on despite a hamstring injury causing him pain for the whole second half.

This is a game that the Hornets feel they should have won. There forwards dominated the set-piece all game, especially in the second half and it was a lack of execution that allowed Bec to get the victory. The Hornets walk away determined to perform better next week against Old Ruts at home.

By Oli Richford