FARNHAM Royal have put the disappointment of defeat to Didcot behind them with an emphatic 89-0 victory over Berkshire Shire Hall on Saturday.

The Royals scored 15 tries and kept their hosts pointless in the BBO Championship fixture though the match at Sonning was not all one way traffic.

The away team weathered the initial Berkshire storm and then hit their opposition where it hurts by scoring first.

In a sweeping move from a lineout just inside the Shire Hall half, Farnham moved the ball out wide before Jason Gumbs cut a great line through the defence. The ball went down the line and then back to the supporting outside centre to cross for a converted score.

Minutes after pulling off a try-saving tackle, the saviour Meryn Norris turned scorer. A neat blindside move put winger Asad Munir into space and was cut down short of the line, but he managed to offload to Norris who stumbled across after tripping over his own feet. The try went unconverted.

The Royals were soon on the attack again and this time it was captain Tom Boardman, deputising at scrum-half, who crossed the whitewash. The platform was laid by a number of powerful drives from the forwards as Boardman showed great feet to beat three players and cross for a converted try.

The visitors secured the bonus point six minutes before the break when Norris crossed for his second try of the match. Wayne Garstang found Norris in enough space to squeeze over in the corner for an excellent finish.

Any chance of a comeback from Berkshire was banished within minutes of the second half after Farnham ran in three quick tries just after the interval.

The first from flanker Stuart Moffat who ran a great inside-to-out-line through the channel. The hosts' defence opened up like the Red Sea and Moffat gleefully ran through, showing great pace to round the full-back and score under the posts.

Gumbs then rounded-off his hat-trick by crossing twice in quick succession. All three tries were successfully converted by Boardman.

Berkshire were stunned and The Royals were now eyeing-up the half century which did not take long. On 53 minutes, blindside flanker Adam Barley, who had been moved up to the second row, crashed over from close range after a sustained period of pressure.

Two minutes later, Dave Marsden, who was on at full-back for Norris after he had taken a blow to the head in search of his hat-trick, rounded off a sweeping move to cross the whitewash.

The match referee did not like the way Marsden and Shire Hall scrum-half Aaron Walters scrapped after the score so decided to show both players the yellow card, much to the surprise of the players and supporters alike.

Farnham continued the rout and crossed for six more tries in the last 15 minutes. Garstang rounded-off one of the quickest hat-tricks in his career, with Moffat crossing for his second try in between.

Gumbs though decided he was not going to be out-done and crossed for his fourth score out wide.

The final act went to Moffat. A trademark power run from number eight Jamie Moffat put younger brother Stuart through a huge hole, and he set off on another long range effort.

The replacement Berkshire full-back put in a valiant effort to prevent the score but Moffat used all of his six-foot six-inch frame to stretch and place the ball over the line - rounding off the third hat-trick of the match.

Moffat then decided to try his hand at kicking and struck the conversion attempt well but it sailed just wide of the posts.

The win keeps Farnham Royal in sixth place in the table ahead of the visit from second-bottom Oxford this Saturday (2.30pm).