U12 As win their pool in the Surrey As Festival

On a magnificent day at Dorking RFC today, the U12 As beat all their opposition to come top of their pool today, showing skill, talent and fantastic mental strength in the process.

There are few opportunities in a mini's season to truly measure the progress of a side but the Surrey As is a grand exception. The best sides in the county come together to play their best rugby and although there are no absolute "Winners and losers" any more, the opportunity to beat teams who in the past we have struggled against is not to be missed.

The boys arrived fit and ready to go, and the mid-week sessions had given all the players an edge which was honed to a fine blade by Dominic at the pitch side this morning. The idea was to give the boys a flying start and boy did they get one.

The first match was to be against local rivals Camberley. Not so long ago, beating Camberley would have been an unusual achievement but this morning the boys were fired up and dispatched Camberley with aplomb, scoring four tries in the process, conceding nothing.

In the post game debrief, the boys congratulated themselves on their scrummaging, noting that denying the opposition any possession made it pretty difficult for them to score! The opposition coaches were admiring Farnham's style too with compliments being received on some super scrum half play and our extraordinary line speed.

The second game was to be against Old Wimbledonians; altogether bigger and harder competition. The boys started a little slower and at first struggled to repeat the possession statistics from the first game but soon worked out where the weaknesses were and exploited them ruthlessly to finish 3-0 winners

The third game was against old adversaries Guildford, who had been taking note of the Farnham boys performance in the first two matches. Again we let them play themselves in a bit too easily in the first half but unprecedented levels of mental and physical toughness allowed Farnham to claw their way back into the game to finish deserving 1-0 winners.

The fourth and final game was to be against Richmond, against whom in the past we'd have struggled to make any impact at all. Their side was extremely well drilled and effective but Farnham fought back with style and although slightly against the run of play, Louis Thomas scored a fantastic breakaway try, ably converted by Finlay Anderson. Just after half time saw the game resume with an equalising try from Richmond; the only one to be scored against Farnham all day. Their kicker couldn't convert it though so Farnham still had a slender lead, leaving the crowd with fingers crossed that we could hang on to it. However, the Farnham supporters needn't have worried as the boys turned the screw with a ferocious display to put one more over the line to finish the game deserved 2-1 winners.

Four wins and no losses put Farnham top of the table - an amazing result against top opposition.

The current U12s squad has been together now for some 5 years or so. The boys have never been the biggest side but there can be no doubt that measuring themselves against some of the best sides in the county, we have taken a massive step up in skills and determination. What was most impressive was the fact that we conceded only one try in all four matches. A superb achievement all round.

A great day for the boys and for the spectators too. Congratulations to all.