On this weekend last season Farnham U16's travelled down to the New Forest to play Ellingham & Ringwood who narrowly edged us in the National Cup. This year saw a return friendly between 2 teams that did not get the National Club placings this year.

A midweek call from E&R coaches informed us we would be again getting a 'game on' and lending players from our Squad. In total 12 girls helped bolster E7R at some point during the match with one player Bea managing to score for both teams.

From the get go Farnham's relentless power from forwards along with rapid support ensured we played off front foot for the majority of the game. Hattie Gibbon (8) scored a first half hat-trick and converted the 3rd herself! Hattie has been returning from a knee injury (sustained last season) and today we started to see the old Hattie power back. Further first half tries for Bea N-S (15), Chloe C (7), Phoebe S (10) and Poppy F (1) saw a dominant first half performance.

We changed things significantly in the second period and E&R showed some determination and realised they needed to keep the ball away from the Farnham pack allowing Bea N-S to get 2 tries back for E&R through poaching and tenacity. Lara Staton (14) would not allow things to end that way scoring a brace, the second of which was an interception within Farnham 22m and running the length of the pitch hotly pursued by chasing E&R defenders. The match unfortunately called about 10 minutes early after a second significant injury. We hope the 2 E&R injuries have been looked after and the girls will be back out very soon.

Much thanks to the coaching team for all the hard work today and to Josh Binks for providing a fine display as a very accomplished match official.

POM Voted By E&R Players: Bea N-S Try's for both teams
Coaches Player: Sophie Cook - best performance this year lots of tackles and powerful runs both for and against us!

On to next weekend and back to Surrey Cup action at home to Dorking.