Norwich 3 : 24 Diss - 21st January 2017

Diss returned home with their first silverware of the season, earned from winning the semi-final of the Norfolk Cup against Norwich, winning 3 - 24.

Norwich however, can hold their heads up as they showed great spirit and resistance and managed to dominate possession and territory in the first half with just three points to show for it. Both teams had decided to rest players and Norwich had three players on debut.

The first half was a tactical affair from the mid field, both sides using territorial kicking to good effect to gain an advantage using intelligent kicks for touch before trying to go wide through their backs. Both sides defence holding at this stage. As the game progressed into the second half the Norwich backs showed steely determination and confidence by running ball out of their own 22m when the opportunity arose.

Cagey probing continued mid field through both team’s sets of forwards testing one another with a pick and drive at every opportunity in the close channels. Neither side claiming dominance at this point. Then on 20 minutes, and on their first visit to the Norwich 22, Diss won their line out – Leeder fed to McClure who rode one tackle and fed the supporting Ed Hudson, going over for Diss’ first try, converted by McClure.

Fraser Hall, came off the bench for Phil Lelievre who is still recovering from a leg injury. The restart saw Diss give away a penalty in kickable range and the Norwich scrum half duly obliged, making the score 3-7.

Two other attacking opportunities for Diss were quashed by Norwich in the first half and stopped just short of the line. The first by a charge down and carry by Will Scott, the second by an outside break from Giles West ending with a high challenge from a Norwich player. In both situations there were support players making themselves available and they will have been frustrated.
The first half ended an inconclusive mid field battle, the score remaining at 3-7.

The second half saw Tim Groom on for Ed Passmore and Ben Walker getting a run out for Jacob Page. Diss began more positively and shifted the point of attack wider to second receiver in Kami Latu to good effect. The set piece at the same time began to look very solid and controlling with good line out work from Brock and Abercrombie

A series of pick and drives through the Diss forwards resulted in a yellow card and penalty against Norwich on their 22,. The resulting scrum, won by Diss for Leeder to feed Precious on the short side who wriggled over wide for his now familiar 5 points a game. McClure adding the 2 points from a difficult conversion.

After a series of telling back attacks using the full width of the pitch in the Norwich half, which left the home side stretched. Tim Groom found himself in the centre, and to the delight of the crowd, pulled off a sublime side step leaving his opposition flat footed. He was able to feed Will Scott and the breakdown resulted in a penalty to Diss, converted by McClure. Diss now ahead by 14 points in the last quarter.

With McClure now pulling the strings from more frequent and cleaner possession from the forwards, he continually posed questions of the Norwich defence with clever wrap around moves to feed those outside him and after one such attack, Diss were rewarded with an attacking scrum 10m out. Leeder was caught in possession – however Diss maintained possession and the ball found its’ way to Groom, poaching on the blind side to go over for the try, converted again by McClure.

The winter sun was now low on the horizon, McClure and Groom took full advantage of this. The first with good tactical chips over the top into the sun for the opposition to field, the latter with a deft tactical grubber, low, for the team to chase. However, with no further points to come, the final score ended Norwich 3 Diss 24 and the David Evans Memorial Trophy wound its’ way back to Diss.

Report by Alistair Shepherd