Second half surge secures a superb Cobham victory

In this their penultimate league fixture of the season, Cobham again displayed the high level of performance that has made them champions of the league and has achieved promotion to the higher London 3 league.

Cobham started the match playing against the strong wind that blew end to end on the pitch and wisely played their impressive high speed handling game rather than kick for position, also facing a determined Farnham side that was seeking to avoid relegation. As a result Cobham only scored a single try from Martin Green in the first half but two penalties from Dan Taylor gave Cobham a comfortable lead at half time.

The Cobham forwards played with immense strength and quality and although the Farnham pack was bigger and heavier the play of Angus Darroch-Warren in the scrum and the domination of skipper Billy Davison in the lineout kept Cobham in control throughout the game. With the wind behind them in the second half Cobham broke loose, with the pace of threequarters now proving unstoppable, and five tries were then scored, all by the backs, as Cobham fitness and speed totally dominated the play.

Right from the start of the match Cobham fielded the Farnham kick-off and attacked with good support play making ground into the Farnham 22. The home side defended well and eventually used the strong wind to kick deep into the Cobham half but a strong drive by Mark Bennett got Cobham moving forward and a break by James Green took play back to the Farnham 22. Cobham kept up a series of attacks and Dan Taylor opened the scoring with a penalty as Farnham infringed at the ruck.

The Farnham pack occasionally infringed with some off the ball displays of physical vigour, one of which was on Spencer Franks, but the referee missed the attack and then yellow carded the Cobham scrum half for his thoroughly justifiable response. Dan Taylor moved to scrum half and Martin Green moved to his previous position of fly half, where he had captained Cobham in their successful series of promotions a few season's ago. Cobham defended strongly against the Farnham attempts to take advantage, and even with their star player off the field Cobham managed a series of attacks with Steve Burton and Nick Sutton getting very close to scoring.

From a scrum in the Farnham 22, Jack Davison picked up at No8 and drove forward through the defence then passing to Martin Green who dived over the line for Cobham's first try, Dan Taylor converting. Just before half time with Spencer Franks back on the field Cobham started to totally outplay the the home side, Imile Keyser running 50 metres at pace to take play deep into the Farnham half and just before half time Dan Taylor extended the Cobham lead to 13 points with his second penalty.

After the interval Cobham mounted a strong attack in the Farnham 22 just failing to score but Dan Taylor was able to score another penalty. With the strong wind behind them Cobham continued with their support play rather than kicking ahead and as a result the speedy action started to stretch the Farnham defence. From a scrum in the Farnham half Cobham moved the ball across the threequarter line, Martin Green linking exceptionally well with Nick Sutton and he received a good pass to beat the defence and score his second try. Cobham were now in total control and after Billy Davison had won the Farnham lineout, centre Aidan Botten burst through two tackles to score under the posts giving Cobham a 28 point lead.

James Dampier came on as replacement for Martin Green and immediately got into play with a strong run deep into the Farnham 22 and Farham were forced to conced a five metre scrum. Cobham moved the ball to the threequarters where James Dampier sprinted in from the wing to take the ball giving a good pass to Nick Sutton who score a superb try. Cobham continued to attack at pace with good support play and after James Green had initially driven forward with a good run his pass to Matt Lawrence gave the winger some space to sprint fully fifty metres to the try line, outpacing the defence to score magnificently under the posts. After another good run by Matt Lawrence at the end of the game, the ball was moved back across the line and Aidan Botten scored his second try, Dan Taylor converting.

Cobham now have one more league match home against Old Amplefordians on the 14 April and a win in that game will result in an unbeaten record for the season, a major achievement for any rugby club in Surrey.

Cobham: N Sutton, M Green, S Burton, A Botten, J Oliver, M Lawrence ; D Taylor, S Franks; T Lee, M Bennett, A Darroch-Warren, B Davison (Capt), I Keyser, S Mills, J Green, J Davison

Report by Tony Maddocks