Farnham fell to a 33-14 defeat at Worthing in Regional One South Central.

Farnham travelled to Worthing for their seventh match of the season in Regional One South Central. The visitors made a few changes to the side which beat London Scottish Lions, with Sam Woodhams and Jeff Leybourne coming into the front row and Jack Buxton returning at flanker. The backline had a slight reshuffle with Toby Salmon at 15 and Ben Stevens on the wing. Worthing kicked off on a sunny afternoon.

Farnham started the game well, putting some strong attacking phases together but the Worthing defence was staying strong. The game was scoreless in the first 15 minutes until the Farnham forwards carried well and Jonny Vincent managed to break through several tackles and power over for the first try. The successful conversion put the visitors 7-0 ahead.

Worthing came back strongly and almost scored shortly afterwards, however an Ollie Brown breakdown penalty got Farnham out of jail. The home team, however, did get on the scoreboard minutes later when they stole a Farnham lineout and moved the ball wide with the right winger finishing off an unconverted try in the corner to make it 7-5.

The game was fairly even at this point with both teams looking threatening with the ball. Worthing executed a well-worked backs move which resulted in their winger breaking down the right and again finishing in the corner. The successful conversion put the hosts 12-7 up.

The home team looked to finish the first half strongly and were camped in the Farnham 22 for several minutes. They were firstly held up over the line before Farnham forced a knock on with the half-time whistle following shortly afterwards with the score remaining 12-7 at the break.

Oskar Parker came on for Farnham in the second half, with the dynamic Vincent moving to loose head. The first chance of the half fell to Farnham when Joey Wood broke the line and got into the Worthing 22, however Salmon couldn’t hang onto his pass.

A Worthing lineout five metres out put the home side in a good position early in the second half. Buxton stole the lineout but was dragged down and Worthing’s second row powered over. The successful conversion put the home side 19-7 ahead.

Farnham knew they had to respond. Toby Simmons came on for Harry West, which resulted in a reshuffle in the backline. A penalty gave Farnham a chance to set up their rolling maul and although the first drive was illegally stopped, they set up another maul which this time powered over through Vincent for his second try of the afternoon. The successful conversion made the score 19-14.

The game was finely in the balance with 20 minutes to go. Brown held up the Worthing skipper over the line to keep it a one-score game, however minutes later Worthing’s 13 powered through the Farnham defence to score under the posts and secure the home side’s bonus point try. The successful conversion put the hosts 26-14 up.

Jemi Akin-Olugbade came on for his first game of the season, but Farnham couldn’t get their hands on the ball with Worthing clinching the game with another converted try. Farnham kept going to the end but couldn’t breakdown the home defence.

By Toby Salmon