Farnham no match for free scoring Warriors....

Saturday 29th September

By Matt Aristizabal 

At home for the first time this season, London South Africa had an opportunity to build on a fantastic opening win two weeks ago by taking on Farnham at Imber Court. A week off from competitive rugby can have one of two effects, but it appeared to have served the Warriors well as they looked fresh and dominated the game from start to finish. Aside from the initial kick-off Farnham barely managed to get out of their own half as LSA set about achieving what was to be a record score for the club.

The game was competitive for the first ten minutes, but when Scott Johnston scored with twelve minutes on the clock after prolonged pressure the floodgates opened. Four minutes later Werner Swanepoel made it 12-0, and Gareth Williams pushed the score on less than five minutes later. Louis Van Zyl and Tiaan Visser (scoring the first of his three) made the lead unassailable, and as the half was drew to a close prop Clint Dearmer and Williams completed the first half rout. With regular goal kicker Matt Fendick back in the side most tries were converted, which meant that at the break the game was effectively over at 43-0.

With such a dominant first half display LSA could have been forgiven for taking their foot off the pedal but three quick tries after the whistle soon set the tone of what was to be a clinically efficient performance. Nick Osman had scored from a neatly worked penalty and the ease with which LSA were running the scores in was making Farnham lose any game plan as they began to resort to off the ball tactics to try and put their mark on the game. Vaughan Gilson kept the pressure on by going over on the left, and from the resulting kick off Malcolm Mirfin got his first of the day as the Warriors began to score at will. Another try straight from the kick off by Ben Bougas meant that Farnham had to kick off again - and this time it was Tiaan Visser’s turn to show how wide the class divide was as he swapped passes in his own half before breaking the line to score.

Triple figures were now well in the Warriors’ sights as Farnham’s petulance ensured that they could take nothing from the humiliating defeat. After a relative lull in the scoring Mirfin scored with a great individual effort, with Fendick converting to reach the ton and it was only knock-ons that stopped the try count increasing further within seconds of the restart. LSA began to use a full repertoire of training ground moves as they chose when and where to score. Visser completed his hat-trick as the half was drawing to a close and the game finished 118-0 when Fendick converted with the last action of the game after Brad Hall had scored.

“We scored 18 tries, and the 18th was the best not because of what it looked like but because it happened in the 80th minute and we were clinical. That was probably one of the best performances I’ve had as a coach, they set themselves a challenge to keep the pedal to the floor and 60-70 points later they managed it” said Bob Crooks after the game. “It was different in the changing room before the game - we’ll perform better and against better opposition. Collectively the front five that set the platform for us, they were magnificent today - it would be impossible to find an individual.” So therefore this week the “Wines of SA” men-of-the-match were the front five, and with such a fantastic performance it is not hard to see why no distinction was made.