Chichester lose to Farnham in 12-try thriller

Blues made six changes with Dane Gingell and Dan Heriot in the pack, Josh Vakasisikakala at full back and Stee Vasuturaga, James Smith and Eddie Jenkinson on the bench.

Blues kicked off down the slope. Farnham mounted their first attack and a collision had the referee reaching for his red card, with less than 90 seconds on the clock.

The visitors probably thought they were in for an easy time against 14, but almost immediately Chichester showed their intent with a Ross Miller interception. But it was called back for an earlier infringement and Farnham slotted the penalty.

A break from Vakasisikakala moved the ball into the opposition half and the ball was fed to Miller, who outstripped the defence on the touchline and dotted down under the posts. The try was converted by Gareth Davies.

The Blues extended their lead when Davies broke through a gap in the defence and fed Rabale Napolioni, who scored under the posts, converted by Davies.

Farnham regrouped and their numerical advantage started to pay dividends with two unconverted tries, from lineouts close to the Blues’ 5m line, to make it 14-13.

The Chichester response was instant, with Gingell breaking into the opposition half before passing to Vakasisikakala whose offload found Napolioni for a try in the corner. The conversion was missed.

Once again numerical advantage started to show, with a Farnham driving maul illegally stopped in Vultures’ Corner and the referee awarding a penalty try and yellow card, so it was 19-20 at half-time.

Blues deserved tremendous credit for not conceding points in the ten minutes they played with 13 men. But Farnham were next to score with a try out wide.

Chichester went up through the gears producing 15 minutes of inspired rugby. In an eight-minute period they scored three tries with supporters in raptures.

On 49 minutes the ball was spun wide from a ruck on the visitors’ 22m line and Napolioni beat his man on the touchline to dot down in the corner for the bonus point try.

From the restart a speculative long pass from Farnham was intercepted by Vakasisikakala. The Fijian put on the afterburners and ran 70m, outstripping the opposition full-back. The try was converted by Davies and Blues led 31-27.

Soon Gingell stormed forward, offloading to new boy Tom Whitehouse, who sprinted down the touchline to score in the corner.

The referee produced another yellow, reducing Blues to 13. Within five minutes Farnham had reduced the deficit with an unconverted try, setting up a tense finale.

Chichester repelled everything until 77 minutes, when a driving maul crashed across the line to score - converted for a 36-39 lead that Farnham held.

This Saturday, Chichester host Guildford (3pm).