Mersea RFC 26 V 24 Diss U14's

Diss arrived on the island via a dry causeway with the promise of a light dusting of snow. The lines were swept and with the conditions at best borderllne the game commenced. The bitter cold blast was having a tremendous effect on all the players but it was Mersea who managed the first try running through a Diss defence which was struggling to responded on the icy pitch. 5-0
The try sparked Diss into life and the backs closed the gaps between each other to improve the handling as they worked an attack move on the Mersea 22 which saw Finlay Martin score his first try of the day. Bryce Cochrane stepped up to slot home the conversion. 5-7
From the restart Diss forwards powered their way up field and into contact short of the Mersea 5m. The ball was secured at the breakdown and Bryce popped the ball to Stanley Spurdens to dink his way over the tryline. Bryce converted for 5-14 lead.
The next 20 minutes were a mixture of indiscipline, lack of control and increased frustration on the part of Diss which allowed Mersea to score three converted tries 26-14. Finlay Martin returned to the field having been sin binned and was clearly rattled at what he felt was an injustice. On the first occasion the ball went into his hands he set off from the Diss half on a typical strong, unstoppable run ending with a tremendous individual try under the posts. Such was the ferocity of the wind from 'the beast from the east 2' that despite his best efforts Bryce couldn't convert. 26-19
With the game thankfully nearing the end Isaac Powell crashed his way through the Mersea line and scored close to the corner. The conversion would have given us a well deserved draw but Bryce was again defeated by the icy blast. Final score 26-24
The team should be proud that they knuckled down and kept going through the worst of conditions, even the tide was against us and made the return trip across the causeway exciting and challenging.