Were it not for the different kits one could be forgiven for thinking that the larger, slower players with a more ad hoc looking warm up were the forwards while the horde of smaller players running through slick handling drills were the rather numerous back division of the same team.

As it transpired, what looked like a whole team of backs was in fact the full Farnham team and they used their handling and speed to great effect.

The game started well for the Horde, by virtue of their having possession they were able to keep the much smaller Farnham team under pressure.

The distribution and lines of the onomastically interesting combination of Croy and McCrory at 10 and 12 challenged the Farnham centres with McCrory’s bulk providing a significant challenge to the Farnham centres while Terry Walters provided a similar challenge to the lightweight Farnham pack.

The Horde could not quite cross the line…however small the Farnham defenders, they were always there in numbers which, with few exceptions, the Horde support players were not.

The Horde had to satisfy themselves with a penalty taken by Aaron Walters but could retreat to the restart safe in the knowledge that the boot was firmly on the home team’s foot.

From the restart, Farnham secured possession, whipped the ball wide and swiftly penetrated the Horde defence to run in the first try.

This was pretty much the pattern of the first half. Every time Farnham got the ball they looked to move it wide and the more stretched the Horde became, the more vulnerable they looked.

After two tries, another Horde foray was rewarded with a penalty but it was soon apparent that the visitors had far the superior lineout and that Horde penalties to touch were as a good as giving back possession, just further down the field. Off their own ball, the visitors stuck to plan A, move it wide ASAP.

Farnham had their share of luck…a couple of bounces could have gone either way and went the way of the visitors, but Farnham also made their own luck with one particularly cheeky chip over the on rushing Horde winger leading to a try.

The half finished with four more tries for the visitors, the last of which saw the try scorer with two men outside him and the score at 6 -30.

The Horde’s experience and bulk had been obvious in the scrum but things looked grim at half time.

After half time, The Horde emerged with a new plan – keeping it tight, supporting the ball carrier and taking on the much smaller Farnham pack with ball in hand – and it mostly worked.

After dominating possession and territory at the start of the second half The Horde were finally rewarded with a try as Aaron burrowed under the defending forwards to touch down.

Farnham quickly demonstrated their threat when a turnover in the backs led to another Farnham try. Farnham were to score two more tries with no answer from the Horde but the second half was a much closer affair as the Horde were much more successful at retaining possession, helped in some measure by the lineout starting to function as an attacking platform again.

The last quarter saw both teams reduced to 14 men as the referee was forced to show at least one yellow, could possibly have shown two reds, if he had seen everything, and decided to compromise on a yellow each, helped it looked like from the touchline, by the Farnham skipper.

After the post-match tunnel a Farnham voice was heard to say...“Right, those who are old enough, up to the bar for a beer” which goes someway to explaining why they were so damned nippy!