Dominant Farnham give Newbury the blues at a cost
FARNHAM kept pace with the teams in the top half of the Regional Two South Central table after a comfortable 68-10 home win over Newbury Blues in their final game of 2023 on Saturday.
The hosts handed a debut to young hooker Chris Ratcliffe who was back from university, and the team was bolstered with injury returnees, skipper Toby Salmon and defence powerhouse Josh Watson.
Farnham kicked off into a breeze and maintained their usual home fast start. An early penalty gave them an opportunity to kick to the corner and with the rolling maul held short, the powerful, in form Harrison Horner powered over from close range. A successful conversion made it 7-0 within two minutes.
The Newbury squad was plagued with injuries and so this team saw a number of players out of position.
Farnham’s Max Williams was a handful in attack and his break got the Black & Whites close to the line. The ball was recycled with Fin Basil running a great line to go in under the posts. The conversion was successful for 14-0.
Confident Farnham then claimed the kick-off and chose to run the ball out. Toby Simmons started the move before offloading to Fin Anderson who drew the last man. He found Ratcliffe on his shoulder to score his first 1st XV try. The conversion took the score to 21-0.
Anderson was involved in the next try when his audacious offload somehow found Williams who broke through the Newbury defence. He offloaded to Toby Salmon who sprinted under the posts. Another successful conversion made it 28-0 and the league bonus point was secured in the first 15 minutes.
Despite being dominated, Newbury managed to get their hands on the ball and came back strong. On the 30-minute mark, Farnham had to empty their bench with backs Anderson and Williams hobbling off as well as prop Dan Sweeney. Raoul Larkins came on for his first XV debut along with Jack Bemelmans and Harry West. A backline reshuffle saw loose forward Oscar Henderson joining the backs at centre.
Newbury opened their account after a few close carries drew the Farnham defence in and a long pass found the Newbury winger to dive into the corner. The conversion was missed for 28-5.
Almost immediately, a scrum on the Newbury 22 gave Farnham good position with Ollie Brown using the presence of Henderson to dent Newbury’s midfield defence before offloading to West who scampered under the posts for his first of the season. The conversion was good with the score 35-5 at half-time.
Farnham, with the wind behind, looked to continue their dominance. They had to be a bit more patient as Newbury fought valiantly. Yet the scoreboard resumed when Brown pounced on a handling error and the ball was moved wide for Simmons to dive into the corner. The conversion was successful for 42-5.
Newbury were next to score when a Farnham scrum was turned over and their replacement winger broke
two tackles down the left and finished well in the corner. A missed conversion took the score to 42-10.
With 20 minutes to go, Toby Salmon had to be replaced with a back injury and moments later Nathan Phillimore suffered a bad leg injury when trying to score a try and was carried off. Play resumed after a lengthy delay with Farnham continuing to dominate. The next score came when Ben Jones fizzed a miss pass to the speedy Simmons who beat his opposite man and scored his second. Jones took over the kicking and converted to make it 49-10.
Despite all the injuries, loose forwards Marcus Lambert-Parsons and Basil had plenty of energy and were resilient in defence. Henderson was enjoying himself and another strong carry provided a good platform for
Jones to get in behind and find prop Marco Azevedo lurking on the wing to score in the corner. The conversion was successful for 56-10.
Newbury were reduced to 14 with a high tackle on Henderson. Then more slick phases by Farnham created space on the left wing for makeshift centres Ratcliffe and Henderson who ran in under the posts for 63-10. The final score came in the closing minutes with Larkins finding Henderson who broke through a tackle before finishing off well in the corner for his hat-trick. The conversion was missed, but the full-time score ended 68-10.
It is hoped the Christmas break will allow for the injured to recover before the challenge of the season when Farnham visit runaway league leaders Jersey on January 6.