Farnham slipped to a narrow 33-31 defeat at home to London Irish Wild Geese in their final Regional Two South Central game of the season on Saturday.

Farnham handed debuts to 17-year-old academy fly-half Rufus Doran and winger Alex Wennen. Farnham kicked off playing into a strong wind. As it transpired, this did not to have the usual impact of favouring the team with the wind at its back. With kicking difficult, Farnham ran the ball with determination with Jonny Vincent making the initial break to get Farnham going.

Powerful and experienced forwards Josh Watson and Ben Adams carried hard while the youthful Fin Basil and Jack Bemelmans provided the energy. The latter broke through the midfield to put Farnham within touching distance. The Irish defence held and Farnham had to be patient for their chance. The ball was recycled to Doran, who popped the ball to Callum Jones who ran a good line to dot down between the posts. The conversion made it 7-0.

Ben Adams was the next forward to break through after a sumptuous flat pass from Doran. The ball was offloaded to Jones who then moved it on to Wennen. He was brought down just short of the line. The ball was recycled quickly and veteran Jemi Akin-Olugbade was on hand to dive over for Farnham’s second try. The conversion made it 14-0.

The scrum was fairly even, but the wind made the lineout a bit of a lottery for both teams. An attacking scrum gave Wild Geese a good opportunity and a well-worked backs move saw the visitors break through and score their first try to make it 14-7. Farnham responded almost immediately with successive phases getting them into the Irish 22 where Harry West found Sam Woodhams lurking out wide. He stormed over for Farnham’s third score to make it 21-7.

Fin Basil received a yellow card for a technical misdemeanour at the breakdown. Despite Wild Geese throwing everything at Farnham’s 14, the home side held out and led 21-7 at half-time. 

Wild Geese came out firing for the second half. Farnham switched off defensively and a Wild Geese winger broke away and scored in the corner to make it 21-12. The Wild Geese bench then made their presence felt. Their scrum was now dominant, allowing them to power over from a five-metre scrum to narrow the gap. The conversion made it 21-19.

Farnham, now back to 15 men, looked to get their hands on the ball and get into the Wild Geese half. However, minutes later, Farnham were reduced to 14 men for the remainder of the game when Josh Watson tackled too high. The head-to-head contact gave the referee no option and Watson was dismissed with 25 minutes to go.

This setback seemed to galvanise Farnham who began to gain possession and ground. The ball was moved wide and Toby Salmon sprinted under the posts for Farnham’s bonus-point try. The conversion made it 28-19.

A penalty minutes later gave Farnham a chance to extend their lead with Salmon taking the three points to make the score 31-19. A yellow card for Vincent reduced Farnham to 13 men for the remainder of the game. At one time Farnham had a player down injured and found themselves defending with 12 men. But the Wild Geese kept coming and eventually broke down the Farnham defence to score their fourth try. The conversion made it 31-26 with three minutes to go.

The Farnham players valiantly made up for the lack of players on the pitch but were starting to run on empty. The Wild Geese winger broke out but was hauled down by the scramble defence ten metres out. A knock on at the ensuing breakdown gave the Irish a scrum in a dangerous position. The attacking scrum was held. However, the scrum-half broke away to go in under the posts for the match-winning score. The conversion was successful and after the formality of a restart, the ball was hoofed off the park by a joyful Wild Geese side.

Farnham finished in seventh place in the league, and will host Chobham at Monkton Lane on Saturday in the opening round of the Papa Johns Cup (3pm).