Farnham beat leaders Tottonians 27-19 to take over at the top of Regional 2 South Central last Saturday.

After a Farnham rolling maul fizzled out the ball was moved wide, with skipper Toby Salmon finding Joe Brockman out wide with a perfectly timed pass for him to dot down in the corner. Salmon’s conversion made it 7-0 with less than five minutes gone.

Wigmore made good yards down the left before strong carries from the forwards and patience led to Shawa Rai bundling over from close range. A simple Salmon conversion made it 14-0 without Tottonians touching the ball.

Tottonians were awarded a penalty about 30 metres from goal on the 15-metre line, but their number ten hit the post and Farnham cleared.

Farnham stole the ball from the line-out, Wigmore made progress on the left but the last pass did not stick. However advantage had been played for an offside penalty, so Salmon took the kick to make it 17-0.

From the restart Tottonians broke through the middle of the Farnham defence, and despite good scramble cover Farnham conceded a penalty. Tottonians kicked to the corner for a five-metre line-out and executed a perfect catch and drive to score a try, excellently converted from the touchline to narrow Farnham’s lead to 17-7.

The effervescent Ben Stevens then put a chip through into open space for Joe Wigmore to overtake everyone in the frame, gather and score. The conversion was pulled wide but it was 22-7 with less than ten minutes until half-time.

Tottonians came out a different side after the break. Farnham failed to get the ball off the park in their own 22 and Tottonians’ big boys put Farnham’s pack to the sword in the scrum, ending up with a pick-and-go score to start the second half. A simple conversion went wide and the score remained 22-12.

From a scrum on their five-metre line, Farnham ran with the ball. Ollie Brown drew the winger to put Wigmore into open space, and he cantered down the touchline leaving a trail of defenders in his wake. His chip through was hastily gathered by the covering full-back, but Farnham applied the pressure and stole the ball deep inside the Tottonians 22.

The ball was moved from one side to the other and there was suddenly a six on two break, with multiple Farnham players pleading for a pass. Jonny Vincent decided to dummy and go himself, albeit drawing in several defenders, but the ball was moved quickly to Ollie Brown, who started the move 85 metres further back. He showed and went to just make it to the line.

With a fourth try bonus point secured, the conversion was pushed just wide in a tricky breeze, but Farnham led 27-12 with less than 15 minutes to go.

Farnham suddenly seemed to be offside at every breakdown and were in danger of making it close. Eventually their stubborn defence gave way after some desperate tackling and Tottonians were in for a try, converted to pull the visitors back to 27-19.

Tottonians made a break right through the heart of the Farnham defence and looked like they could be in, but their winger bizarrely decided to hurdle a would-be tackler to give a penalty to Farnham.

The last seven minutes or so were dominated by Tottonians, who threw everything they could at the Farnham defence, but it remained stubborn and Tottonians could not break though.

Multiple phases and do-or-die tackling from the home side forced Tottonians to try anything and everything to break through, but eventually they knocked the ball on and time was called with the light fading.

It was a phenomenal shift from the home side, who picked up five points and prevented Tottonians leaving with anything for their efforts.

Farnham were potent and dangerous in attack throughout the game, and resolute in their defence when it mattered.

Tottonians took a long time to get into the game and respond to the fast and prolific start by Farnham. They posed a threat at times but were not clinical when it counted.

Farnham are two points clear at the top of the table with a visit to Chobham on Saturday.

Mike Salmon