Wisbech 1st XV rediscovered their winning form when they beat Fakenham RFC 51-9 at Harecroft road on Saturday afternoon.
Coming into the match off the back of a tough defeat to Ely last weekend, Leonard Veenendaals’ team put in an assertive and dominant performance and well deserving of their win.
The opening minutes belonged to the home side, who repeatedly caused problems for the Fakenham defence, Wisbech phase play and good handling was rewarded when the ball found Nico ‘the Hippo’ Steekamp’ who sprinted 30 meters for the opening try and Wisbech to take a 5-nil lead.
From the restart Wisbech continued to put the visitors under pressure and within 7 minutes William Lankfer manged to get the ball to James Napier in space who stepped his way pass two defenders to score under the post, Andy Claydon successfully with the conversion to stretch the lead to 12-0.
Wisbech continued to set the pace and James ‘the Rhino’ Patrick powered his way past a couple of defenders to score minutes later. Steenkamp missed the conversion. The score now 17-0.
Wisbech continued to keep Fakenham under pressure pinned in their own half. Again Wisbech strung together several phases from, the ruck in the Fakenham 22 the ball was spun out to the left to find Solomon’ the god Titan’ Prestidge who sold a text book dummy to score a captains try in the left hand corner, giving Wisbech a comfortable lead of 22-0 as the first half came to an end.
Fakenham were the first team to make an impact in the second half, scoring a try after 5 minutes after a sustained piece of attacking play, reducing the lead to 22-7.
If Wisbech thought the game was dead and buried Fakenham had other ideas. The next twenty minutes belonged to Fakenham as they scored a second unconverted try to narrow the lead 22-12.
Wisbech then looked to take back control over the match and continued to apply pressure to the Fakenham defence and it was the hosts who scored next. Big Nathan Goodale who had been putting in several powerful carries powered his way over for an important try to restore the home teams’ dominance. Steenkamp unsuccessful with the conversion.
A stunning individual try from William Lankfer further extended the Men in Reds’ lead 15 minutes later. The Oundle School A-level student burst through and ran 40 metres before eventually diving over. Super sub Jack Malkin slotted over the conversion to extend the lead to 34-12.
Wisbech’s persistence in attack continued and the extremely experienced Shane Vickers showed his class to score a brace of tries within in 5 minutes.
Jack Malkin’s presence was by now stamped all over the game with an eye catching display in defence and like a general in total control running the game from fly half. It would be the host and rightfully Malkin who scored the final points of the day with a lovely break for a converted try to finish the game 51-12 for the host.
Speaking after the match, Wisbech Head Coach Nico Steenkamp said: “I am so happy for the boys, they went out there and they put our game on the park.
“We held them out and then obviously we took our chances when they came up. I’m really delighted for the whole team, they were clinical today”
William Lankfer or Big Bad Bob as his team mates affectional call him just edged the impressive Skippy Parsons for the Wisbech Round Table Man-of-the-Match award for his all-round outstanding performance.
Wisbech 1st XV next face Woodbridge away while the Wildcats are also on the road away to Wendens Ambo.
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