Fakenham see off challenge of Bears

Fakenham secured a hard-fought 43-20 victory over March Bears at the Stinger Ground on Saturday.March opened the scoring in the first five minutes with a penalty as Tom Lumley slotted the ball through the middle of the posts.After 14 minutes, some very scrappy ball was kicked through by Fakenham and scrum-half Harry Richardson dived over the line.Eight minutes later, Fakenham outside-centre Aaron Tagg intercepted the ball, cantered over the line to dot down underneath the postsWith Will Gladwin having to leave the field with a serious collar bone injury, Bears substitute Kyle Stanford forced himself through a stream of Fakenham players.Lumley added to his kick tally to make the score 12-10 to the hosts.The next score arrived from a home lineout as the ball was popped to Richardson, who came through at pace and crossed the line untouched for his second try. Marshall was unlucky to see his conversion attempt cannon back off the upright. After a series of rucks and mauls, the ever-strong Henry Mair went over for March’s second try as Fakenham went into the break holding a 19-15 advantage.With the game in the balance, the cliché of the next score being pivotal was appropriate and it was the home side that got the first points of the second half.Attacking from their own 22, several strong Fakenham carries took them deep into March territory. Then, from ten metres out, the players put together some impressive interplay, with several offloads in one phase putting Marshall through to score on the right and proceeded to convert his own try.A move involving Tindal and Tagg then found winger Ashley Stewart, whose kick was eventually pounced on by full-back Trent Stoltz for the home side’s next score. The Bears roared back with prop Aiden Gray bursting through the Fakenham defence line on halfway and then linked up with Harvey Davies who ran in an excellent try in the right-hand corner.Tindal showed his combination of pace and power to get past a couple of defenders and dive over on the right and Marshall nailed an impressive conversion. The home side maintained the momentum, as substitute Howard Kellock took the restart with an impressive catch.He followed it up with a strong carry down the blindside before freeing his hands to offload to Casey as he went to ground.Some textbook draw and pass followed, as Casey gave it back inside to flanker Rob Ward, who then committed the final defender before freeing winger Jack Bryan Green to sprint in and dive over in the corner.The Barsham Brewery Man of the Match went to outside centre Aaron Tagg, who was dominant in the tackle but also destructive with ball in hand.On Saturday, Fakenham travel to Wisbech, hoping to overturn their 10-22 defeat at the Stringer Ground in October.