Old Ruts U14bs vs Farnham U14bs

On a mild morning in Mitcham, Farnham U14b's were once again pitching their skills against Old Rutlishiens U14bs hoping to keep up their impressive record against them

Farnham were very quickly out of the blocks taking the game to Old Ruts with an exciting running game and a solid defence. Ever pressing forward Farnham pinned Old Ruts into their own half. With some superb rucking and mauling from the forwards followed by a quick distribution of the ball along the back line. It was not long until Farnham found Alfie Fitch in space on the wing to run in Farnham's opening try in the corner, still with a man overlap

Their second try followed shortly after with a great forward move between Theo Lees, Jake Kimberly and Ben Seymour all off loading the ball to a supporting player during the tackles. Some fast thinking by William Mylchreest from the resulting ruck saw him power over the line in the opposite corner

At this point Old Ruts rallied and started to press forward, but were repelled by solid tackling and a very fast Farnham defence . This led to a rushed Old Ruts kick from under their own posts following a period of renewed Farnham pressure. The kick was ably taken by Ewan McLeod who supported by the forwards allowed the resulting ruck to give fast ball to Jake Kimberly who powered over in the corner for his first try. This was converted by Samuel Johnston to extend the Farnham lead to 17-0

Old Ruts again rallied and started to press the Farnham defence, but again the line was solid. This was epitomised by the scrummage which pushed back a much heavier pack throughout the game

As Old Ruts pressed the Farnham forwards again stole the ball in their own 22 and moved the ball down the line to Lewis Pritchard. He had a devastating run running straight at and through the initial line of the Old Ruts defence. Finally when tackled he offloaded to Jake Kimberly who ran a superb line in support and was not to be stopped running in to score his second try

HT: Farnham 22 Old Ruts 0

The second half started with Old Ruts changing their tactics giving the larger forwards much more of the ball. Working together they managed to force Farnham back to eventually score their opening try. Farnham were not to be daunted though and quickly responded with a period of pressure and a try under the posts by Theo Lees again converted by Samuel Johnston.

They then nearly extended their lead further with Samuel Johnston being stopped inches from the line with a two man overlap, But that was to be their final opportunity to score.

Despite a great tackle from Noah Eldridge to stop an Old Ruts counter, Old Ruts eventually got over the Farnham try line again on the last play of the game

FT: Farnham 29 Old Ruts 12

The podium points awarded by coach Alistair Mylchreest post match were as follows:

1 Tom Adams for a great game at scrum half, getting quick ball to the backs
2 Noah Eldridge for a superb display of tackling and great positioning throughout the game
3 Alfie Fitch for having his best game in a Farnham shirt with strong tackling and running, despite battling through a nose bleed from pre match warmup

A great team display again.....keep it going into the cup...