Farnham u16 Surrey cup champions

With Esher RFC declaring their pitches unsuitable for play the Surrey county cup final game moved to Farnham RFC
The weather gave us 36 rain free hours and the pitches were declared suitable.

Farnham Vs Guildford has always been a tumultuous battle between our closest Surrey rivals and in 7 previous games this Farnham age group has only come away with a win once. 34 Surrey rugby club teams entered this competition and it all boiled down to this last game .

The day had been drying all morning but ahead of the game the heavens opened to baptize players and supports alike but this didn't dampen the anybodies ardour .

So, a wet afternoon saw Guildford attack deep into the Farnham 22 and pin the hosts back with strong runs from backs and forwards combining.

Finally, after 15 mins of defending Farnham broke out of their half and capitalising on some space ran the ball down in to Guildford’s territory. Some infringement by Guildford brought on a penalty that gave Farnham an attacking position in Guildford’s 22.

Farnham tried again and again to break the Guildford defense to No avail and eventually Farnham knocked on giving a scrum to Guildford on their 5 m line. Farnham’s put huge pressure on Guildford and the scrum half scrambled to get the ball back only to have Tobias Trafford steal the ball and score the first points.

Guildford came back at Farnham and smashed in to the black and whites defence driving them all the way to their try line. But the home boys defence held. Again, and again Guildford tried to breach the defence only to be hurled back. The constant pressure told and an offside call gave Guildford a simple 3 points offered.

Half time saw the teams evenly poised 5-3.

For much of the second half the ball went end to end as the two teams fought for dominance. After numerous sniping runs Farnham got their chance and eventually broke through with Louie Kirkham scoring.

7 mins to go in the game and you would have thought the match to be over, but Guildford had other ideas, back they can and with some great running lines from the back they drove all the way to Farnham’s line. This time Farnham’s defence finally gave way and Guildford scored.

10-8 with a conversion to come and the balcony held its breath.

The ball drifted past the outside of the posts and 5 mins later the final whistle went that gave Farnham the county cup.

Man of the match voted by the opposition

Louie Kirkham

Man of the tournament voted by his own team

Joe Brockman

The Cup winning team was