Rugged determination seals victory for Diss Saracens

The Saracens arrived at Beeston Hyrne on Saturday with a scratch side of 15 men, after a couple of late drop outs and John Hutchinson getting a last minute call up to the first team. Matt Cullum meanwhile was confined to the touchline as water boy having come off worse in an argument with a pig!

The Saracens made a scrappy start, lacking a little composure, which led to Norwich getting on the scoreboard first after a penalty as conceded in front of the posts. Diss soon fought back, and after a series of driving mauls Jacob Page crossed the line for his first try in senior rugby. Alan Goymour’s tremendous form from the previous week hadn’t travelled to Norwich and the conversion was narrowly missed.

Norwich then applied more pressure and again Diss lost their calm a little and conceded another kickable penalty, taking Norwich into a 6-5 lead. The new centre combination of Jake Girdler and Kyle Jerlardo started to gel nicely, and after a series of well-timed passes Girdler was over the line for the Saracens second try. Again the conversion was narrowly missed.

There was a series of strong attacking play from the Saracens, with a couple of scrums even being won against the head, with Rich Horne, the newest recruit at loose head prop, scrummaging very well. Ollie Taylor came close to the line, but was stopped just short, taking the Saracens into half time with a 10-6 lead.

Following the break the Saracens came back onto the field with 14 men after Jelardo had to leave for work. However, this didn’t stop the Saracens attacking form, and shortly into the half Dan Hooper ran a strong cutting line in support to break through the Norwich defence outside their 22 and run his first try in for Diss, although it wasn’t converted.

The Saracens determination was now evident as John Llewellyn made a break from catching the restart to take Diss straight back into Norwich’s half. A series of interactions between the backs and the forwards then put winger Mike Skeets over the line for his first try in a Blue Shirt, which Will Edwards then converted.

Again the Saracens looked dominant from the restart, and after his fifth attempt Chris Trede finally managed to intercept a pass from an on-side position to run a try in from the half way line, again converted by Edwards. After a series of solid rucks and mauls from the 14 men in blue Henry Darling, the flanker recruited at a moment’s notice, went under the posts for the final try of the game. Again Edwards converted, leaving the Saracens with a 36-6 victory much to Norwich’s surprise, especially as they hadn’t noticed they’d had a one man advantage over Diss for the final 40 minutes.