Eastleigh 17pts, Farnham 16pts

Farnham were 13-0 up after half an hour but failed to capitalise on their early superiority. Did Farnham tail off or did Eastleigh improve? The Farnham faithful would probably agree the latter.

Either way, the end result was an agonising London 2 South West defeat for the black and whites.

Farnham started well and managed to quieten the vociferous home supporters. Driven on by skipper Oli Brown, the attacking drills were put to the test as wave after wave crashed into the Eastleigh 22. This was controlled Farnham rugby with flankers Liam Welch and Toby Comley to the fore and No8 Rob Mitchell shepherding the telling attacking thrusts. A testament to level-seven rugby, the pace was unrelenting throughout, with both defences working overtime.

After the early sparring, the visitors made the breakthrough in the 11th minute. The Hampshire Society referee was frustrated with the home defence and awarded a penalty to Farnham, which Toby Salmon easily converted for a 3-0 lead.

The ferocious nature of both attack and defence continued as Eastleigh began to reassert pressure, but too much was said to the referee and home flanker Jamieson was banished with a yellow card on 14 minutes.

Farnham seized the initiative and drove to the heart of the Eastleigh 22. Welch and Marco Azevado, driven on by Matt Prichard and Andy Coutts, made the hard yards an the pressure began to tell. And it was left to the Salmon brothers to pull the strings with Michael freeing up Toby to jink, squirm, battle and eventually dive over for the try. An easy two extras for the scorer saw Farnham’s lead extended to 10-0 after only 15 minutes.

These two sides always seem to have edgy battles. The Eastleigh crowd are noisy, raucous and passionate about their own boys – and when the chips are down they are dragged back up by their noisy faithful. That was the case here.

The bulk of the game was a mistake ridden arm wrestle between the 22s. Farnham, on the charge, were beaten back by Eastleigh, only to put in a brutal defensive shift of their own led by the inspirational Michael Salmon.

The wraparound defences held sway for the first 25 minutes but the momentum was with Farnham. And the pressure told and Eastleigh were penalised for not rolling away at the ruck. Salmon kicked the penalty to stretch Farnham’s lead to 13-0.

Farnham pride themselves on ball retention both as a team and individually in the tackle but were uncharacteristicly untidy in contact. By the final whistle the number of fumbles and turnovers had reached well into double figures. One such fumble opened up an opportunity for Eastleigh and it was seized upon by their impressive centre Powell on the cut back. He was held by the posts but the Eastleigh pick and drive made the try inevitable to cut the arrears to 13-7 as half time approached.

The intensity took its toll on tired bodies. Comley was forced off with a nasty injury to be replaced by the abrasive Matt Kouris, followed almost immediately by Ben Adam’s departure to bring replacement prop Gareth Yeomans into the second row. The Farnham lineout, which had spluttered unsuccessfully all afternoon, was now devoid of jumpers. The writing was on the wall.

The momentum had swung toward the Hampshire side and, after a multi-phased attack, second row Wilson drove over for the try under the posts to put Eastleigh ahead for the first time, 14-13.

Still Farnham refused to break, and if anything the game increased in pace and contact. The visitors’ woes increased too as Kouris was yellow carded for a tip tackle. However, a breakout through Ben Jones and Reece Stennet freed up replacement Elliot Rich, who was ilegally held on the ground. The penalty was converted by Salmon to restore Farnham’s lead, 16-14, against the run of play.

That spurred the home crowd into action again, cajoling, willing and coaxing on their team, and with only four minutes remaining they launched a key attack. There appeared to be a knock on, which wasn’t given, and the ball bounced forward off hooker Ben Brown straight into the retreating James Corlett. The resulting penalty was priceless for Eastleigh who edged back in front, 17-16.

But there was still time for some late drama as Farnham drove at the Eastleigh defence and won a penalty, but Toby Salmon’s attempt from 42 metres was wide and short and the home full-back hoofed the ball into the crowd to end the match.

After a break in the fixtures, Farnham return to London 2 South West action when they host Old Emanuel at Monkton Lane on January 26.