Diss Saracens 14 : 12 North Walsham 2s

Back in September, during the reverse fixture at North Walsham, Diss Saracens only had one front row player available and despite struggling they played the whole match with contested scrums thanks to two players who normally played scrum half stepping up in the true spirit of the game. On Saturday having gone 7 points down from a typical Josh Monks charge over the line and a Seb Goodge conversion, North Walsham, who had one player out of position playing front row, made the tactical decision to claim uncontested scrums having been dominated, but not dangerously so, in the first 20 minutes by the Diss set piece.

The change allowed the dangerous looking Walsham backline more possession and space to cause the Diss team problems while negating the Diss team’s advantage up front. With the versatile flankers Nick Garnham and Adam Rogers playing in the Diss backs it took time for a defensive understanding to develop and eventually North Walsham went over for a try with the conversion being missed.

During the second half the driving maul of the Diss forwards was still causing problems and despite conceding another well finished try to North Walsham they came back to score another themselves by the supporting Henry Passmore after good build up work by Wilbur Hemmant with the conversion again by Seb Goodge to give Diss the crucial two point lead. North Walsham kept putting the ball wide at every opportunity but the improved defensive understanding of Raymond Knapp and Troy Miller alongside the other backs meant they were no longer finding space. Eventually with time up Chris Aldous won the crucial turnover to allow the ball to be kicked into touch for a deserved but hard fought victory.

Report by Seb Goodge