Farnham 3rds win at Merton

However, when the whistle was blown to signal the start of the match Farnham weren’t quite as switched on as they were in the warm up. For the first 15 minutes, Merton applied pressure in all areas of the game which Farnham could not match. Fortunately only one try was scored by Merton but it woke up the Farnham side for the remainder of the half. The defensive structure was sound eventually putting Merton on the back foot and the ball was turned. Farnham’s forwards put Merton under pressure with slow ball and the ball was passed out wide, with the backs gaining a bit of ground. After a few phases of play, simple hands in the back line gave an overlap and Max Goodwin scorched down the wing and scored the first try for Farnham. After this, more solid work from the forwards sucked in enough of the defenders and again simple hands in the backs created an overlap giving Max Goodwin his second try. With Karl Brown constantly talking and marshalling the troops, Farnham continued with the pressure, keeping solid defensive structure when needed. When they had the ball, Farnham attacked confidently with good support unlike a couple of previous matches. After some open play from the backs and finding the spaces in the Merton defensive line, a couple of offloads led to Ed Simpson (a prop no less) outpacing both Merton and Farnham wingers to score a try in the corner. Soon after this try, Farnham found themselves down in the opposition 22 again with a lineout. The ball was taken cleanly and a maul set. Gaining a few metres the forwards gained enough ground for Karl Brown to peel off the back and charge his way to the try line to score. However, just before the end of the half Merton were on the Farnham 5 metre line and managed to score due to poor defence from Farnham.

At the start of the second half Farnham kept up the performance from the first half, keeping Merton on the back foot. After phases from both sides, Farnham had the ball after some decent attacking play up near the opponents try line. From good slow ball from the forwards and good rucking support, Woody was able to pick and go and bag himself a try. Seemingly in the second half though, Merton picked their game up and managed to get a few more tries before Farnham could gather themselves again. When they did though, from some simple aggressive attack Farnham again found themselves within the opposition half. From the back of a ruck the ball was passed to the blind and with a bit of pace the ball was popped to Tom Silcox, and with a silky spin he slipped past the defenders to score. This concluded tries from Farnham, with Andy Williams converting four of them and also getting a penalty. Merton put one more try past Farnham but it wasn’t enough, with Farnham being victorious 41-24.

Well deserved Man of the Match to Karl Brown as well as a well deserved Dick of the Day to Tom Silcox.

Report by Chris Jenkins