This was the day that players and coaches dream of, where everything that is tried comes off and players can do nothing wrong.

Alton hosted Farnborough in this friendly match and scored nearly every one of their tries by passing and supporting at every opportunity. The visitors were under pressure in the scrum, missing both their first choice props and Alton won several balls against the head to be able to set up attacks almost at will.
 
Nevertheless, even teams under pressure do make tackles and several Alton players found themselves on the floor when a pass would have been more judicious.
 
For the record, the scorers were:
1' - Ben Turner, converted by Dylan Saralis
8' - Saralis, missed conversion by Jack Bilsland
10' - Bilsland, converted by Bilsland
16' - Will Black, missed conversion by Saralis
18' - Jack Farr, converted by Bilsland
20' - Will Foster, converted by Saralis
25' - Ryan Mayo, converted by Bilsland
HT 45-0
+1' - Farnborough try, missed conversion
+3' - Foster, missed conversion by Jack Pinto
+8' - Harry Boll, missed conversion by Pinto
+11' - Gareth Robinson, missed conversion by Robinson
+15' - Turner, missed conversion by Nathan Ward
+17' - Farnborough try, converted
+23 - Dan Hill, missed conversion by Peter Harvey
+26' - Farnborough try, missed conversion.
 
For the cognoscenti amongst the readers, it will be recognised that not many forwards scored - they were to a man completely unselfish. The forwards won the ball and then donated it to the free-running, hair-combing backline to do the damage.
 
Some anecdotal points to note about some of the scores:
Mayo's score came from a series of passes from a scrum on the right hand side; through pairs of hands to Mayo who caught the ball; attempted to move the ball wider to supporting players; misjudged the pass; juggled the ball a couple of times but the act of misjudging the pass saw the Farnborough cover 'buy' this unexpected dummy, leaving Mayo the simple joy of scoring just to the left of the posts.
 
Lead coach for the day, Al Saralis, was chopping and changing as many of the squad as possible to ensure that they all got decent game time, with players being asked to play in unfamiliar positions. Hill (normally a hooker) was playing at full back, standing on the half way line as Alton were applying pressure when a clearance kick from his own team mate Saralis (playing for injury-stricken Farnborough to help out) reached hill who couldn't quite get to the ball to catch it 'on the full'. Nevertheless, the ball ricocheted a fair distance forward off Hill's knee, whose forward momentum enabled him to reach the ball first, pick it up and round the covering defenders to score in the corner. He claims it was a planned move.
 
... and an 'almost' moment.
Prop Tom Rudman, planning to be on the wing anyway he says during a phase of play, caught a pass on the half way line and set off towards the try line, which got nearer and nearer with each stride until yes, Tom was over the line having out-run two of three defenders, but then, to his horror, dropped the ball as he was tackled over the line in the act of touching it down.
 
It should not be read that Farnborough were a poor side - when they released the ball to their backs, the ball transfer was by no means slow and the wingers were quick runners - two of their tries came from 'skinning' defenders. It simply was one of those days that every coach and player, at all levels of sport, dream of and this was Alton's day.
 
One other item to note about the day - the ball was in play and recycled so often that the first lineout took place 14 minutes into the second half - 44 minutes after the game kicked off.
 
Finally, many thanks to the Alton players who helped out the opposition when injuries eventually took the toll of the visitors' numbers late on in the match.
 
Having arrived with a minimum complement of players and no replacements, the visitors had no opportunity to rest any of their squad and all credit is due to the Farnborough boys who initially turned down the offer of some Alton players at half time, enabling them to listen to their coaching staff and try to overcome their problems. It obviously worked since straight from the second half restart, they caught the ball and scored!
 
This is what rugby is about - playing for pride but with friendship and cooperation in adversity.