Diss 3s 20 : 5 Bury St Edmunds 4s - 21st January 2017

In near freezing conditions and with a break in league action due to the cup weekend Diss welcomed Bury St Edmunds fourth string to Belrope Lane in a feisty forward based encounter and came away with a satisfying win in the cold. Captain Benny Goodman and vice-captain Will Foote inspected all three pitches and decided the first team pitch was just about playable and Bury agreed and the match was on. Tim Styles made a debut on the wing and the side welcomed back Seb Goodge at fly-half and Nick Yager at blindside flanker and Zac Seaward filled in at inside centre while James Hayhoe and Steve Macqueen were rested only playing league matches as a priority. Dave Rackham shored up the front row and James Winterbottom returned to the starting line up. Diss began to show signs of not having played regular enough with only their second game in seven weeks with a string of mistakes and missed tackles but eventually began to string some phases together and after a darting run by Naz Girgin who stepped more players than in his career in total got Diss on the front foot, From a lineout Diss got the ball out wide, with a flowing move through various hands, for Tim Styles darting run finishing with him going over in the corner. Chris Howard who was playing at number eight made several barraging runs to go with his excellent tackling display and with Will Foote at open side making space and playing freely and Nick Yager doing the tidying up at the back of the scrum Diss began to look good. Bury weren’t to be overawed and they made several breaks going close to scoring twice in the first twenty minutes. Diss scored again through a tank approach by Pete Bray who instead of using the overlap decided to use the run over approach instead and scored close to the posts. Bury eventually after all their promise of attacks seized on a Diss mistake to score under the posts but ultimately it was to be Ben Brooks day after all as he scored two tries which were just the sort of tries we are accustomed to seeing him scoring with him sniffing the opportunity. They’re were outstanding support lines especially from James Winterbottom for the second try and at half time the score was 20-5. Changes were made to both wings, Jake Meers gave his beard a run out on the wing alongside Angus Williams who left for university after the game. The game ebbed and flowed and went this way and that as the good play matched the bad but neither side could score, Jake Meers went close with a striding run on the right wing and captain Goodman made a few breaks in the centre alongside long serving Goodge at fly half and Zac Seward made several attempts to break through the Bury defence. Nick Yager who had tackled and turned over the ball so much that he looked like a train wreck was named man of the match after the game. League takes priority next week with the thirds playing again as the only home team against North Norfolk side Fakenham who bring their second team to Belrope Lane with Diss hoping to prevent a spanner going in the works on their march to promotion.

Report by Benny Goodman