Veterans Rugby

Farnham 0 - Cobham All Stars 24

14th January 2007

The author hadn’t played at Farnham for at least 10 years but it was as if I had never been away. It was grey and raining and the pitches were reminiscent of Flanders circa 1917. At least after such a muddy encountered we were assured a hot soothing shower-yeah all right.

The match began at full pace with both sides vying for superiority. Suddenly the late addition to the side Pat Stallion looking more like a young colt went off on one of his mazy runs taking on the entire defence and almost reached the oppos line before a last minute tap tackle felled him inches short. The ever present Andy Le Petit was on hand to receive the offload and score.

The All stars took control with Phil Birch running the game from stand off.  Strong running from Stallion, Le Petit, Berton and Hobson feeding off Birchy, carved up the defence. Cobham only looked vulnerable from their own mistakes throwing a couple of interception passes and then only recovering the situation with some fine cover tackling by the backs.

The second try came from some strong running from the forwards and good support play seeing Mark Taylor pop up to take the scoring pass.

Half time and Cobham had to endure a second half into the strong Farnham gust.  The hard yards had to be driven not kicked which was achieved by great work from the front row of Whitlock, Sneddon and Davey. If the devil could cast his net.

Brooksey was kept busy at full back by the unimaginative Farnham no.10 kicking it down his throat. He ran it back well and linked with the wings to good effect. More good handling in the slippy conditions saw Birchy make a break and drive himself close offloading in the tackle to Yatesy who went over from his favourite distance of 3 feet.

Stallion switching to centre made the final and best try of the day. Ripping the defence open he fed Taylor into the bottom corner of the pitch who considered the run uphill under the posts but due to exhaustion and nicotine deprivation settled for the corner flag giving Birchy 40 metres into the wing to convert a hopeless task.

The referees use of Cards on the Farnham players caused some relief for a tired Allstars outfit as well as much amusement as the second he left the pitch throwing all his teddies out of his pram, whilst questioning the refs parentage, grand parentage and his prowess at amusing himself in private.

Well done all. Best performance of the season so far in difficult conditions.

Man of the match-Phil Birch

Quote of the day-Guess who. “I knew as soon as I’d hit him I’d got the wrong bloke.” 

Andrew LePetit