Wymondham II 10, Fakenham 41

Fakenham travelled to Wymondham with a strong and determined squad out to avenge the previous week’s last minute defeat by Norwich II.

The squad had a good training session on the Tuesday and ironed out some of the defensive frailties they had shown against Norwich.

Fakenham had a bright start and forced the play into the Wymondham 22 metres area where having set a ruck, number 8 Howard Kellock smuggled the ball and ran down the blindside and even a last ditch tackle by the Wymondham winger could not stop him from crossing the line for the first try, which was unconverted.

Wymondham responded quickly when a mix up in the Fakenham defensive line allowed a line break by the Wymondham No 13 who sprinted almost 50 metres before an excellent cover tackle brought him down. The support play was close and they forced over to score a try, which was unconverted, to make it 5-5.

Fakenham again dictated the pace of the game forcing an error from Wymondham close to the try line which meant the visitors, with the dominant pack, had a five-metre scrum. Fakenham duly drove the scrum and scrum-half Paul Richardson pounced on the ball to score the try which was converted by Tom Bane-Young.

Fakenham pushed hard to score again when Wymondham infringed at a ruck allowing Bane-Young to score the penalty, extending the lead to 15-5.

The next score came when Dave Savage, who had been immense in both attack and defence, ran 40 metres to score on the left wing, with the conversion missed.

Wymondham opened up the second half in a rampant mood scoring a try in the first five minutes to reduce the arrears to 20-10. The response from Fakenham was swift with a series of attacks taking play up to the Wymondham try line, and forcing a five-metre scrum which Fakenham drove over and Richardson touched down to score another try, again converted by Bane-Young.

The pressure was kept on by Fakenham to force three successive five-metre scrums from penalties but Wymondham kept infringing which resulted in a penalty try, although Kellock had managed to ground the ball. Ryder slotted the conversion to make the score 34-10.

Wymondham mustered some good attacks of their own without adding to the score. Fakenham rounded off the day with an aggressive drive from stand-off K Ryder which was converted by T Syer.

This Saturday, Fakenham host top of the table North Walsham II, kick-off 2pm. There is a pre-match luncheon, entry to the game is free and the club bar will be open during the game.