And they are off

Diss Under 15’s

Home to Newmarket 24th November 2013

Diss 41 Newmarket 14

Diss were unusually short of players on a match day as only 19 boys arrived for this friendly, added to the calendar 2 weeks ago. Several regulars were missing due to injury and family commitments. Newmarket arrived with only 14 so Diss lent them a player, on a rotating basis.

With regular captain Angus McDaniel missing from the team due to injury (although present on crutches and very vociferous from the side lines) Hayden Watling was in charge and soon ran in the first try, after a brilliant run from full back, up the line. Campbell Young missed the conversion from out wide and it was game on at 5-0.

Vigorous defending from 10 metres could not stop Newmarket scoring a converted try half way through the first period after considerable pressure from their capable and large forwards, who rucked over excellently and read the ref much better than Diss for the whole match, oops 5-7 to the visitors.

A close encounter ensued and at this point Diss may have been forgiven for lowering their resolve against this huge impressive set of forwards. These big boys rucked over superbly and secured a fair number of turnovers.

It looked like it was going to be Diss’s day, however as Joe Boom from centre, in his first match after returning from a series of injuries, kicked through the Newmarket defence from the Diss 22 to run in under the posts for the try of the day. Young converted and Diss were in front again 12-7. Half Time.

The second half saw the introduction of some seasoned Diss players who had been kicking their heels on the bench. Angus Germany brought renewed vigour to the front row and certain, perhaps mystical, ginger player seemed to appear on the wing – could it be that unmasked man?

Yeah well it was. Joe Hegarty proceeded to run in no less than 5 tries, two converted (Young), some were achieved by team work, some individual runs, but the score finished 41-14 a good , if not great result.

Poor old Joe Boom, however had to take one for the team, and being yellow carded sat out the last 10 minutes for other player’s transgressions- welcome back Joe!

Men of the Match: Captain Hayden Watling and new boy James Fountain, who had a superb introduction to Rugby this level and shone. More difficult encounters will follow for the top team in Norfolk, but they will remain THE TOP TEAM IN NORFOLK. Thanks are also due to Finlay Brett, JohnJoe Smith and Jake Grant for playing for Newmarket today and making it a competitive game as otherwise it would have been uncontested scrums.