Fakenham 24 v Beccles 25

Beccles started the game well and were soon on top in the scrum, pushing the opposition back and winning penalties to get in to the opponents territory. Beccles opened the scoring after some good driving play from the forwards. After a number of phases Captain Holtzer came from blind to open around the back of a ruck and the opposition couldn’t stop him going over. Shucksmith added the conversion.
Beccles soon added to their lead when Morton showed good strength to power his way over in the corner. Beccles got their lineout working well with Gedney taking good ball at four. Another try soon followed , this time Holtzer showing good strength again to carry the ball and reach through a number of tacklers to touch down. Shucksmith extended the lead further with a penalty to put Beccles twenty points up.
In the last few games Beccles have lost leading positions and have regularly conceded just before half time. The curse struck again. Beccles looked to have cleared a promising Fakenham attack, turning the ball over on their own line. They could have cleared and seen out the half but the ball was quickly turned back over and Fakenham went in for a converted try to give a half time score of 7 – 20.
As in previous weeks this put the opposition on the front foot and the Beccles heads went down a bit. Two quick tries followed to get Fakenham back to within one point of Beccles. Some good Beccles defence followed but with ten minutes left a number of missed tackles out wide let Fakenham in again and into the lead by four points.
Beccles hadn’t been able to come back from this in the previous few weeks but this week was different. Beccles used their dominance at scrum time to win penalties and drive Fakenham deep in to their twenty-two. With Beccles winning a penalty on the Fakenham line they opted to scrummage again. Three times the drove the opposition back and were only kept out by Fakenham conceding four penalties. On the fourth occasion the ball was fed out to Hannam and with the defence on the back foot he went over for the score to put Beccles back in front.
There was time for the restart and Fakenham went looking for the win. Beccles conceded a penalty just inside their half and Fakenham opted to go for the long range kick to win the game. The attempt was close but dropped just short to give Beccles the win by 25-24.
After improving steadily over the past few weeks this was a well deserved win for Beccles. They still sit bottom of the table but are within striking distance of the sides above them. Having only played two home games so far this season Beccles will have a high percentage of home games in the second half of the season. They will be looking to continue their improvements and start to regularly pick up the victories to move up the table.
Man of the match was Jack Baldry.
This week Beccles entertain Thetford and the 2nd team are also at home against Norwich Medics 2s.