game awareness

DISS 17:15 NEWMARKET
There were huge smiles on the faces of the Coach’s after this game reflecting the shear pride each one of us has in each and every player and the way they are progressing. They are doing the basics of the game so well now it’s allowing us to build on the skill levels and the awareness of the game. If there is one single thing I had to pick from this game it would be the game awareness that the lads are starting to grasp, looking for space, varying the play to suit their strengths, alright there were times when the ball should have gone wide, there were times when we needed to protect the ball better but hey that happens in every game at every level and these are things we will work on in training and the lads will get better and better at this.
Right on to the game, firstly a huge thanks to Newmarket for agreeing to come to Mackenders for a game that wasn’t scheduled to be played and I know they enjoyed the game nearly as much as we did. From the Kick off this was going to be a really hard fought match but one that was going to be great for the spectators with both sides looking to play the game at pace. Newmarket were to open the scoring after 10 minutes to go 0:5 in the lead, for the next 20 minutes there wouldn’t be another score which shows how hard each side worked in defence, DISS were hitting the play hard through their forwards with Joe Burrows, George Paine and Luke Ronayne driving hard to make good ground but Newmarket were up for the challenge and tackled well but how long they could sustain this was left to be seen. George Easton was all over the park making tackles which really helps the team as it’s like having another flanker on the pitch to support Lee Bray and Dougie Lloyd in closing Newmarket down whenever they had the ball.
The set piece play from DISS is really maturing with Deaghlan Bowman striking well for the ball in the scrum and throwing the ball in with real accuracy at the lineout, this really helps maintain the pressure on the opposition especially when this can often be a lottery for many sides, the practice Deaghlan puts in away from the Club, in his own time, really shows the benefit of such dedication to improving himself. From this sustained pressure Joe Burrows burst his way through Newmarket to score wide out, leaving Tom Watson a difficult conversion but he slotted it over with ease to put DISS 7:5 in the lead after 26 minutes. DISS came straight back at Newmarket from the re-start after Joss Griffiths expertly caught a Kick and returned back with a great kick that Newmarket ended up clearing into touch for a DISS lineout. From an inventive 3 man lineout DISS secured the ball and quickly fed this through the great hands of Dan Jolly, Tom Watson and Jamie Soudain to release Oscar at outside Centre to score in the corner, a great try especially given the fact that he hasn’t played in this position before. DISS 12 : 5 Newmarket at half time.
The physicality of the game started to show in the second half with Newmarket losing a couple of players and DISS losing Joe Burrows resulting in uncontested scrums and 12 aside to ensure the game stayed even and competitive in the true spirit of how Rugby should be played. Early in the second half DISS were caught napping and Newmarket ran a great try in into the left corner to make the score 12:10. A lesson learned here for DISS in using the touchline as an extra defender, when an opposition player is so close to the touchline drive him out of play! One for next week.
DISS soon found there rhythm again and to be fair pretty much dominated the second half even with uncontested scrums. The initial thought was that this would take a key strength away from DISS but far from it, what it did do was ensure that the ball was moved wide from every scrum which allowed Dan Jolly not only to feed his back line but also to mix the game up a bit with some sniping runs, Tom Watson followed suite as well along with feeding the really strong centre partnership of Jamie Soudain and Oscar that often released Gian Chopra and James Cleverley on the wings. From this open play and from the lads, seeing space Dougie Lloyd scored a great try far out, he had a couple of defenders to beat but his awareness and ability to quickly change direction saw him go over to make the score 17:10 to DISS.
Newmarket by no means gave up and came back with a try of their own to make the score 17:15 just before the final whistle. DISS 17: 15 Newmarket.

Well done lads!! We are away at Hadleigh next Sunday so please let Andy know that you are available, we only have 3 scheduled games between now and the Tour so we need as much match time as we can, training Thursday at 6.30pm please.
Kevin Jolly
Coach