1st XV v South Woodham Ferrers

Diss responded to last week’s top of the table defeat by overcoming a most combative South Woodham Ferrers side, in a game that was both entertaining and abrasive to say the least. Diss opened the scoring on 2 minutes following a Sean McClure penalty and immediately began to play at an encouraging and rapid tempo. Following a typical Jamie Burroughs break, clean ruck ball was eventually filtered to the inform Matt Richards, who twisted his way over the line to score the first try of the game. The conversion was missed and South Woodham secured line out position in the Diss twenty two, clean ball was released to the Woodham three quarters and poor Diss defence allowed the visitors to reduce the deficit to 8-5. Not to be thwarted at this stage, Diss responded in positive fashion and following coordinated interplay between Fraser Hall, George Gooderham and Jamie Burroughs eventually found Paul Cayley for the second home game in a row loitering out wide. A neat pass enabled Cayley to crash over and score. Diss remained focussed and attempted to break the back of the South Woodham rear-guard. On 30 minutes a promising 5 metre scrummage allowed Sean McClure the opportunity to execute a cute line to score unopposed close to the posts. McClure converted his own try to take Diss into a deserved 20-5 lead. At this point the game really should have been taken away from the visitors but a lack of concentration allowed the visitors to score a second try to draw first half events to a conclusion at 20 points to 12.

The second half failed to live up to the standards set by both teams in the first forty minutes. With the third quarter littered with errors and no pattern, Diss Captain, Fraser Hall manfully attempted to bring some structure to proceedings and following driving play from Kimi Latu a forward moving scrummage allowed Fraser Hall to score a bonus point try to increase the Diss lead to 25-12. South Woodham now responded in positive fashion and following defensive errors in the Diss dead ball area a third try for the visitors caused anxiety in the Diss ranks. Diss ended proceedings on the offensive with Michael Fuller, Kimi Latu and Sean McClure all having an influential presence throughout the game. Diss certainly yet again left points out on the park and for most of the second half remained rather baffled by their perceived lack of discipline at the break down and in open play. That said this a win put the Norfolk side back on course for the remainder of the season.