Diss Rugby Development Festival

Fakenham travelled to Diss on Mothers Day, 14th March, for the Annual Development Festival.
U8: The young Fakenham players bar-bared with Swaffham and produced their best performance of the season to date. First they played Wymondham winning 15-10, that was followed by a loss to a strong Holt team 25-15. Finally came North Walsham The boys put on a stirling performance and won 25-10. This secured them runners up place in their pool, which saw them enter the plate Final where they faced Wymondham again this time beating them 25-15 and winning 3rd place.
This was a magnificent team effort which involved some inspirational individual displays.
TEAM: Archie, Callum, Gregor and Nathan(Fakenham) Ollie and Ethan (Swaffham)

U9: Placed in a pool along side Lowestoft and Yarmouth and Diss, Fakenham’s 7 players were eager to get started. First up was Diss, so borrowing 2 players from L+Y, the team started strong, fantastic team play and rucking saw Fakenham score early Diss soon replied with one of their own. In the second half Fakenham defended well and turning ball over on several occasions went on to score two more. Final score Fakenham15- Diss5. Next up was L+Y so borrowing 2 players from Diss this time the boys played a really good tight game which saw the two teams very evenly matched, final score 15-15.
with a win and a draw in hand Fakenham went through as winners of their pool in to the Cup Final. This saw them face a very strong and organised North Walsham side who with great offloads broke through Fakenham’s defences. Final Score North Walsham 25 Fakenham 5
TEAM: Toby, Will, Catherine, Zacci, Luke, Fraiser, Finlay

U12: Placed in Pool 1 they came up against some stiff opposition in the form of Lowestoft & Broadland. L&B drew first blood but didn’t convert their try. Fakenham set about the L&B defences in the second half, breaking through to score a try, which was then converted, successfully putting Fakenham ahead until the final whistle.

Beccles were crushed under a full steam Fakenham side, which scored 4 converted tries to Beccles 1.

Toughest match of the Pool was Diss. Both teams needed to win to advance to the Cup Final. With a converted try apiece the final whistle sounded, and many a nail was chewed while the Chief scorer totted up game wins, then tries scored, then points difference. To much relief, from our team, it was announced that Diss had successfully got through to the Plate Final, which meant Fakenham proceeded to the Cup on the basis of having scored more points during the Pool games.

Woodbridge, winners of Pool 2, dealt the first blow with a quick try. Fakenham replied with a converted try, in the oncoming rain, before Woodbridge scored again just before half-time. Fakenham began the second half slowly, allowing Woodbridge to score again, before shifting the ball wide to run in a fabulous try from deep in our own territory. The whistle blew with Woodbridge narrowly coming out on top. The boys did their Mothers proud and were pleased to come away Runners-up.
Squad; Dane Cason, James Reeve, Matthew Sims, Keeley Fullalove, Alex Bird, Sam Leverett, Connor Bunkle, Henry Hepworth-Smith, Murray Tindall, Lloyd Marshall, George Thompson, Ashley Stewart, Harry Richardson, Jack Castell, Callum Frost, Kieran Blakemore-George.

As a special extra for the day, unknowingly, all players from the U10s-U12s were being watched over to see who would be awarded the honour of festival player of the day and win a training session with Lawrence Dallaglio in June at Twickenham. With over 300 children from the various clubs represented, it was announced that Fakenham’s U12s player Murray Tindall, had won. Murray, who has been playing rugby at Fakenham since he was 6, was completely stunned as they announced his name at the end of the presentation.