Rugby Report Saturday 24th March 2012

Diss 1st XV 13 v 8 Brentwood 1st XV

Perhaps it was the late kick off, the spring sunshine, whatever it was, Diss were not prepared for the ensuing battle put up by a spirited Brentwood side.

At the end, it was the fitness and spirit of a Diss side that allowed them to come out on top as worthy winners. From the kick off Diss put the pressure on and with the resulting scrum the first of a number of unconverted penalties was awarded.

This was the pattern of play for the first ten minutes, with one penalty converted by Chris Beaird. Brentwood were not daunted by their visit to fortress Mackenders and counter attacked with a flair and passion that did not do justice to their league position.

It was from one of these counter attacks that Brentwood scored the first try of the match, after some slick handling by their backs. But as in many matches this season Diss have shown that they will not be intimidated by any team, and put in a number of their own counter attacks that forced Brentwood onto their back feet for a large part of the first half.

Notable among them, a surging run from Alistair Abercrombie from the Diss try line, admirably supported by the youthful Tim Groom took them up to the half way line, the ensuing attack only losing impetus because of wrong options being taken by the backs.

Brentwood were not going to be a pushover and proved it by pushing Diss back in all phases of the forward game after every counter attack from Diss, their backs in particular were proving to be very useful and forced the Diss backs into making unusual mistakes. However, this game is a game of two halves and so it proved at Mackenders, Phil Sharpe once again cleverly showing his poker hand, made some changes at half time.

Bringing on the roving Wilby, and giving Reeder Winslet a game at centre, turned the game around. Diss started the second half with the same level of commitment given during the first, and surprised Brentwood by the quality of their driving maul, Charles Crotty in particular proving to be a thorn in the Brentwood pack for most of the half.

The first Diss try was as a result of the pressure being exerted on the opposition pack, Peter Chartier quickly feeding the ball out to Zak Seward, who seeing the effervescent Wilby taking an attacking line fed it straight out to the returning rover, who scored in the corner. With Warren beginning to exert an influence on his opposition centre, Diss responded with a number of good incisive moves that allowed Diss to gain the upperhand in the middle of the field, Andrew Horne and Chris Craven proving to be bigger thorns than normal.

This pressure soon resulted in Brentwood giving way with a yellow card in the last ten minutes. With fourteen men Brentwood could not stop the inevitable and so it was with Warren Wilby scoring in the corner after some bright play between the forwards and backs. Brentwood closed the game with a late penalty.

A hard game cleanly contested, Phil Sharpe will take some pleasure from the result, which consolidates the league position for Diss and will allow the coach to try out other players before the season ends.

Arthur Gittins