Diss v Lowestoft and Yarmouth

With great commitment from players and parents alike, Diss fielded a full side again this week which is really helping put practice into play which is generating a momentum of better play week on week.

From the whistle it was obvious to the spectators that this was going to be a really competitive game with great physical commitment from both sides. L & Y found there rhythm earlier than Diss and managed to go 15 points up without response from Diss after 15 minutes. Whilst there was some good play from L&Y it has to be said that it was just a lack of match sharpness from Diss and a lethargy in the loose and rucks that gave L&Y ball to use that Diss shouldn’t have allowed them to have.

Once Diss tightened up in the scrum some great driving play from the forwards lead to a great try from Joe Burrows who is thriving in his new position at number Eight and the responsibility of captaining the side, L&Y scrambled another try before Joe Burrows lead the driving play again to score his second try to make the score 10 : 20 at half time.

In the second half Diss were linking up forwards and backs really well and showing signs of being able to play some really exciting Rugby, a great example of the maturing side came from some loose play by Diss resulting in the ball being spilled but rather than leaving the ball to the opposition Jonah Short picked up the ball going backwards turned quickly and took the ball back at L&Y at pace, jinking his way past two or three defenders to send a lovely spin pass out to Joss Griffiths who beat his man and released a pass to Gian Chopra on the wing, if the ball had gone to hand then he would have been in in the corner without doubt. Mistakes happen that’s just natural but this will get better and when it does these lads will play Rugby as it’s meant to be played with not only hard physicality but flair and inventiveness also.

L&Y continued to gather up loose ball into the second half and capitalised with two more tries and a conversion before Diss had one last flourish culminating in a fine try from James Hutchings who literally picked up one the opposition and carried them over the line with him to score a try finishing the game off 15:32.

It’s hard to mention every individual player in a match report but it’s also hard because we’re watching a Team now and not a group of individuals, alright there will be people who shine in certain games which is great but the some of the parts is slowly but surely becoming greater than the whole!

Team this week was : Hutchings;Bowman;Oakley;Paine;Easton;Bray;Burrows;Faulkner;Jolly;Watson;Lloyd;Cleverley;Griffiths;Chopra;Short.

Have a great Christmas one and all, please motivate the guys to keep their fitness up over the festive period, we’ve a game against Hadleigh at home on the 4th Jan (I believe we have Kitchen Duty then also), before our first game in the Norfolk Cup at Home on the 11th Jan against West Norfolk. Can you please ensure you have completed and returned the registration cards to Andy and paid the lads Membership fees before then please as this is a cup game and without being registered they won’t be able to play, it will be gutting if we can’t field a full side just because of this.

Kevin Jolly