Farnham 3rd XV 67-5 Old Emanuel

The balcony was full, the sun was out, the beer was flowing and Farnham 3rd XV were going through their pre-match rituals (jogging about). The opposition was Old Emanuel, and the referee was a young plucky 17 year old taking charge of his first match, and the Farnham line up consisted of a mixture of youthful exuberance (hardly) and old wise heads (mostly). Almost straight from the kickoff Farnham asserted their dominance scoring try after try in an opening 30 minutes. A first half hat-trick from centre Chris Jenkins proved that there were holes to be exploited out wide. Steve Clark crossed the try line on the back of a good mauling effort. Only a few minutes later, a charging, raging captain Vince then exploited a gap taking a pop off Karl Brown to go crashing over in true Farnham style. Julian Ranger also added a further try almost rendering the second half a formality. By this point it was clear to see how this game was going to go, especially considering Old Emanuel were already struggling for players. The boot of Nigel Rooney kept adding insult to injury, missing only three conversions all day. The first half finished a few minutes early due to a nasty looking knee injury to an Old Emanuel player.

The Second half started in a similar fashion to the first. Graham Goode made an impact off the bench scoring early on, and there was also a try for speedster Ed Keogh . The ref then disallowed two tries out wide, despite the ball being clearly grounded on both occasions. By this point Farnham had loaned the opposition two players just so the game could continue, the points were certainly safe. Graham Goode then added to his tally taking a lovely inside pass off a powerful Joe Curran run, and other prop Ed Simpson also crossed the line. Old Emanuel did however get a consolation try, but it did nothing to affect the outcome of the game – a comprehensive win for Farnham.