This Sunday, the Farnham Falcons entertained Horsham in the return fixture which they narrowly lost 7-5 on Horsham’s artificial pitch loss back in December. Two games later and the improvement in this young squad is massive with this 39-0 victory.
The Falcons received the kick-off and drove into the Horsham half where they were determined to play their rugby for almost the entire game. The set scrum, spearheaded by the front row of Jacinta Bethel, Harri Donaldson and Steph Thompson, set the platform for the much of this dominance including the first try. With Horsham on the back foot, scrum half Rachel Gold sniped for the line. Held, she offloaded to Sophia Spencer who shipped the ball on to Thompson to power over for the unconverted try.
This was the start the Falcons coaches Jenni Balmer, Jacko Jackson and Aaron Webb had hoped for. Confidence now flowed throughout the team. The ball flowed smoothly form hand to hand as the Falcon’s pressed forward. Smart interplay between winger Naomi Pitman and flanker Becky Phillips, released speedster Hannah Hasim who stepped Horsham’s cover defence to score under the posts. The extras were supplied by birthday-girl, Amy Smyth. 12-0
The next try illustrated another dimension to the Falcon’s game as Horsham were driven back from the ruck. With Laura Johnson and Beki Hardman leading the charge, space opened up for 17-year-old, Iona Baxter who dotted down for Farnham’s third try on the stroke of half time. Smyth with the extras and 19-0 at half time.
The half time chat set the girls two objectives: don’t let Horsham score and score as many as you can.
At the restart, centre Octavia Andersen rose to the challenge by tackling the Horsham receiver and with Jacinta Bethel turned the ball over. A quick offload to Beki Hardman who released Hannah Hasim for her second.
Hasim’s hat-trick was the result of solid forward play and ball retention over multiple phases. Off the bench, Vicky Nye and Karen Webb provided the driving force that sucked in the Horsham defence and opened the space for Hasim.
To their credit, Horsham did not lie down and upped the aggression and determination in the last twenty minutes. A series of turnovers put the Falcons under pressure, but the fresh legs of Charlotte Hewson drove the Horsham attack into touch allowing the Falcons to catch their breath and reset.
With that they scored two further tries. No 8 Sophie Lee Perkins put in some masterful side steps and a massive hand off to go over and flanker Abbi Jackson burst free from a maul near the Horsham line to score.
Back game Horsham but were dispossessed by the fearsome tackling of Rachael Gold and Octavia Andersen. The ball out to Sophie Lee Perkins who released Beki Hardman who was held just short by the over defence to deny the Falcons an 8th try. Nevertheless, the Falcons are soaring with the 39-0 win!