West Norfolk 48 Fakenham 17 – London Counties 3EC

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After finishing off the old year with an away win against Woodbridge and also beating league leaders, Holt, the four-week layoff seemed to have a really adverse effect on the Fakenham team, todays performance was disjointed and lacked accuracy, far too many times the ball was coughed up and first up tackles were brushed aside. From the outset West Norfolk played well with their large forwards more than making the gain line , in turn giving good ball to their very sharp half back pairing.
Early pressure from West Norfolk saw them held up twice over the Fakenham goal line with some good work by Joe Bane-Young and Lyam Thorpe in defence. When the try did come from West No8 Jamie Williamson, it also came with a yellow card for Fakenham. This knocked the confidence of the away side and saw West Norfolk score again, almost from the restart after some very poor defensive work. At 14 points down and 14 men on the field with only 12 minutes played, things were looking bad. Fakenham hung on though and produced a try of their own some 10 minutes later. Slick passing by Damon Howick saw Brett Stolworthy elusively cross over for a converted try making the score 14 points to 7. Expectations that this was the catalyst for a more cohesive looking Fakenham unfortunately