Farnham made it two wins from two in Regional One South Central with a 26-7 victory at home to Bracknell.

Farnham welcomed Bracknell to Monkton Lane and came into the game full of confidence after their bonus point win at Hammersmith, while Bracknell were off the back of a late loss to Worthing and keen to get their season started.

Farnham made just a couple of changes from their previous game with Marco Azevedo starting at loose head and captain Toby Salmon back in the team at fly half. The home team kicked off on a blustery afternoon and looked to make a quick start.

They did just that when Greg Franzel offloaded to Shawa Rai who showed great pace to break into the Bracknell 22. The ball was moved wide to the left with Oscar Henderson and Joe Wigmore combining well before being stopped five metres short. After a few tight phases Salmon found a hole in the Bracknell defence to dot down under the posts.

A loose Bracknell kick was collected by Ollie Brown, who moved the ball to Ben Stevens. He half broke through a tackle before a sublime out the back offload found Jonny Vincent who charged into the Bracknell 22. The breakdown was quick and the ball found Salmon who beat a couple of defenders and powered his way to the line for his second try.

Bracknell had to respond and started putting some attacking phases together through their strong ball carriers. The Farnham defence was holding firm though with Rai and Matt Kouris making several dominant tackles.

Bracknell got on the scoresheet after 20 minutes when their fly half broke the line with some fine footwork and showed great pace to score next to the posts.

The front row of Azevedo, Kouris and Franzel had the edge at scrum time and won a penalty 30 metres out. Farnham kicked to the corner and set up a driving maul that was executed perfectly, resulting in Franzel dotting down for his first score of the season.

The heavens opened in the remaining minutes of the half which caused some handling errors, however Farnham took a 19-7 lead going into half-time.

Bracknell had the ball for most of the second half. Farnham’s defence had to withstand numerous big carries from the Bracknell pack, who couldn’t break down the Farnham wall.

Bracknell continued to attack but on 60 minutes a loose pass was intercepted by Wigmore, who sprinted for the line. He was stopped just short but did well to keep the ball and recycle. Farnham were patient and Kouris managed to power over for the bonus-point try.

Farnham’s defence continued to put the effort in. Sam Voight and Henderson led the forwards well with centres Alex Young and Joey Wood also putting in the hard work. Harrison Horner put a thunderous hit on the Bracknell fly half.

Sam Woodhams came on and made an immediate impact at scrum time, winning a penalty. Harry West came on at scrum half and fellow substitute George Bellamy made a 40-metre break in the last minute to give Farnham a chance to finish on a high. The ball was moved to Max Williams whose kick in between just went out with the full time whistle following shortly afterwards.

By Toby Salmon