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Our 1st XV's strength is depth is underpinned by the strength and quality of our Junior Section. All bar two of the players in the President's Podium table above learned their trade (certainly in the formative years) as Juniors at FRUFC - plus quite a few others in the senior squad including 1st XV skipper Ollie Brown and brother Ben.
Every year, a number of Farnham lads leave home for university or careers elsewhere - thankfully returning home for the holidays. This is where the Farnham Vandals, the club’s U23s side, comes in! The Vandals' mission is to sustain a love of rugby and loyalty to FRUFC among those wandering souls. The current Vandal's team is comprised mainly of Academy players from the last two year's squads seasons disrupted by the pandemic.
On the evidence of Sunday's match against Old Reedonians, all is going to plan!
After all pandemic protocols (and more) had been followed, the Vandals enjoyed the advantage of the significant slope at Reeds for the first half of the game.
The Vandals didn't bring a kicking game to exploit the slope but we did have the distribution skills of Will Mylchreest - recently returned from 3 years rugby in California - and Max Deverne, bringing Gallic flare from University in Narbonne. Both moved the ball around to eventually set up a short range drive for the forwards and a try for pack leader Chris Ratcliffe.
ORs immediately counter attacked but fearless defence from Murray and Richards, marshalled well by ex-age group captain Redford kept them out until pressure on the Farnham 22 resulted in a knock on soon after which ORs went over for a try of their own - 7-5.
The remainder of the half was all Farnham, ORs penalty count was on the increase and eventually the pressure told, a clean break by Warrior regular Ollie Male helped Deverne skip over for a simple try out wide – 7-10.
No one is quite sure what happened next! Old Reedonians came out swinging, caught our boys asleep, got the bounce of the ball and suddenly we’d conceded 4 tries in 10 minutes! 31-10. OR's crowd got livelier and the signs were ominous. Thankfully our boys had other ideas. Tackling was relentless, discipline was on point and Old Reedonians were rattled.
The referee rightly pointed out that he was a volunteer and did not appreciate how he was being spoken to by OR players and supporters alike and started taking appropriate action to deal with the dissent – 4 yellows in the 2nd half! Well done sir!
The Farnham scrum, which had been dominant all day, came to the fore and gave the backs the platform to move the ball around. Time was running out and despite a try from Captain Ed Robinson, we weren’t able to do much more. Final score – 15-31.
Well played boys.
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