Farnham U18 Girls Reach National Cup Regional Final!

Farnham U18 Girls travelled up the A3 to Old Ruts ground in Wimbledon in good form after some impressive post Christmas performances, including a comfortable win against the same opponents at the Surrey Finals Day. But any complacency was quickly addressed by an early Rumbles Try, following a series of close quarter runs by the imposing opposition pack.
Farnham responded with 2 well worked tries, the first for prolific wing Mimi McArthur, the second for equally prolific prop Ella Barker after a powerful run by Honor Brown. Captain Tegan Larvan, who with limited possession controlled the game brilliantly from fly half, converted the second, 12-7 to Farnham. The second try came from Farnham's impressive lineout with Lucy Hales accurate with her throwing and Abi Lawrence leaping high with fantastic support from her lifters.
For much of the rest of the first half the Rumbles forwards kept rumbling and the Farnham forwards kept tackling with Joss Baraud, Ellee Hales and Emily Rigby heavily involved. But in the end the dam burst and Rumbles scored again, 12-12. With half time approaching Farnham had some rare possession in the opposition 22 and powerful scrummaging from Izzy Kingham, Summer Beach & Chelsey Reed provided the platform for player of the day number 8 Isabella Newnes-Smith to cross from a 5m scrum, 17-12 to Farnham at half time.
What followed was essentially an amazing rear guard effort by the whole Farnham team, interspersed with fantastic attacking out wide through McArthur, Freya Clifford, Hattie Stockham and Bella White. How the score was still 17-12 with 5 minutes to go was anyone's guess but with Rumbles forwards tiring and Emily Veats inspiring with some fantastic runs, omnipresent scrum half Phoebe Foskett fed Newnes-Smith for her second try before the number 8 finished things off with her hat trick try on the final whistle. In the end a comfortable 27-12 win on the scoreboard but requiring a super brave nerve shredding second half defensive performance to secure the victory. The girls now become the Club's first ever junior side to reach a National Final, where they will face Dings Crusaders from Bristol on 3rd March.