Waverley Festival, Farnham RUFC, Sunday October 7th 2012

We were once again spoiled by the weather at the Waverley Festival, which gave all involved a fantastic opportunity to enjoy the facilities and grounds of the new clubhouse.

Pumas played in the B festival and first up was Cranleigh and again it took a little while for the players to get back into the swing of match play. Some outstanding tagging took place by Pumas and we were unlucky to have two tries disallowed due to issues with Tags not being in the correct place. The score line of 42-14 does not reflect the performance Pumas in.

Next up came Haselmere. Another excellent performance in the tagging department by the Pumas but the pressure of stopping and waiting for opposition players to retrieve their tags, who never came back for them, led to too many points and a 35-14 defeat. The team kept their heads up and although there was a degree of frustration at the tagging issues, they all got on with the game and improved from round 1.

The third match saw Pumas take on Guildford, who were very well organised. Pumas picked up their game all around and put in an excellent performance with some excellent running rugby and support passing. Katie Baird repeated her form from Cobham and scored a beautiful try which was unfortunately disallowed; surely to be rectified next week at Guildford. Excellent tries by Pumas but it was unfortunately Guildford who emerged victors at 35-21.

The last game for Pumas was Camberley. Pumas again put in 100% and at several times during the match had Camberley going sideways or backwards across the pitch! Some brilliant attacking runs were unfortunately bought to an end due to our attackers outpacing the support players and giving possession to Camberley, though it has to be said they often received it in offside positions! Again the final score of 21-14 does not give a true reflection of what was a very close match.

All in all it was a very enjoyable, positive and rewarding day for Pumas. They played some outstanding rugby, dealt with their frustrations brilliantly and most importantly kept on smiling! Our Player for the Week was Reece Leech. Well done to Reece and all of the Pumas!

The support on the day by the parents helping out with car parking,, first aid, pitch marshalling, looking after subs and organising/coaching the kids between sessions was fantastic. Many thanks to you all.